Christophe Lemaitre "White Lightning" 9.92 and 19.80!

[white lightning]

I'm happy to see him winning easily out of lane one. All is not lost. His time is ok for May. He has some ground to make up compared to last season but he is not racing high caliber competition yet. I think they know that he needs to peak in late July to early August and he will be ready. I look forward to his first sub 10 of the season in Rome. It's going to be great seeing him lineup against the best sprinters in the world. It will be a good early test to see where he is at. I expect a time around 9.99 in his next race regardless of the wind. He does look like he is having fun out there and that is very important to stay loose and relaxed.

 

[LoLy]

diamond league Rome

today 9.38pm

Lane	Athlete	Nation	PB	SB	Diamond Points​	Diamond Ranking
1​	WAUGH Ainsley​	JAM​	10.11​	10.25​
2​	ROACH Kimmari​	JAM​	10.13​	10.20​
3​	LEMAITRE Christophe​	FRA​	9.92​	10.45​
4​	BOLT Usain​	JAM​	9.58​	9.82​
5​	COLLINS Kim​	SKN​	9.98​	10.11​
6​	POWELL Asafa​	JAM​	9.72​	9.88​	4​	1​
7​	CLARKE Lerone​	JAM​	9.99​	9.99​
8​	HARVEY Jacques​	JAM​	10.09​	10.10​
9​	MAGAKWE Simon​	RSA​	10.06​	10.06​

 

[Bk21]

ITW

ITW of Christophe: "I worth more"

 

[white is right]

ITW of Christophe: "I worth more"

If any Canadians out there are interested the CBC.ca website has a live feed of the Diamond League meet in Rome. I think Americans need to know how to cloak their IP address.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Not bad!!!!

Third with 10.04 and -0.1 wind. He was quite slow in the start.

 

[white is right]

He looked roughly on par with last season. He is still maybe a level Below Bolt and Powell but he is the best of the next level. Also his closing ability is still there, which should bode well in the deuce.

 

[Keyser Soze]

-0.1 wind

RANK	ATHLETE	NATION	RESULT	REACTION TIME	DIAMOND POINTS	DIAMOND RANKING
1​	BOLT Usain​	JAM​	9.76​	WL,MR​	0.152​	4​	2​
2​	POWELL Asafa​	JAM​	9.91​		0.159​	6​	1​
3​	LEMAITRE Christophe​	FRA​	10.04​	SB​	0.147​	1​	4​
4​	COLLINS Kim​	SKN​	10.05​	SB​	0.163​
5​	CLARKE Lerone​	JAM​	10.16​		0.167​
6​	ROACH Kimmari​	JAM​	10.23​		0.125​
7​	HARVEY Jacques​	JAM​	10.24​		0.131​
8​	WAUGH Ainsley​	JAM​	10.30​		0.154​
9​	MAGAKWE Simon​	RSA​	10.33​		0.246​

 

[elispeedster]

Not bad!!!!

Third with 10.04 and -0.1 wind. He was quite slow in the start.

Very slow at the start, 2nd to last at 60 meters and came back to finish third. Great effort.

When Christophe starts seriously working on his power output (hills and heavy weights), his starting 1st 30-40 meters will catch up to his final 30-40 meters and 9.80 will come easily.

 

[white lightning]

I'm happy with his race today. Other than a little bit of overstriding and the lack of power(start), he looked good. Keep it up Christophe. I hope he can get in another race or two before the euro championships. Maybe we will see some serious fireworks at the french national champs with Vicaut pushing him.

 

[trackster]

Yep, same old story. Nearly in last place for first third of race, outruns most of the others (as always, excluding Bolt and Powell) in the second half. Respectable time, but no indication he's pointed towards Olympic 100m glory. I'm not saying he's peaking at 100m, but, watching that first 40 meters, I can only stick with the argument I've made for two years now: He's a 200m man. He may even have 400m potential. But in the 100m, he's just not got the initial push to keep up.

Anyway, I rate the performance as neutral. Nothing exciting, but not a negative. At least it dispels our worst fears.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Very slow at the start, 2nd to last at 60 meters and came back to finish third. Great effort.

When Christophe starts seriously working on his power output (hills and heavy weights), his starting 1st 30-40 meters will catch up to his final 30-40 meters and 9.80 will come easily.

Exactly.
On TV his first 30 meters looked like he had lost his rhythm/could not get a rhythm or something . I also noticed that his quadriceps looked bigger than last year so his heavy lifting must been a little better than last year same time.

 

[white lightning]

If only we could combine the explosive power and muscle along with the start of Matt Shirvington with Lemaitre. You would have a sprinter who could beat Bolt. An ever better starter though not as muscluar was Morne Nagel. I have never seen any white sprinter who could start like him in my life. Nagel just lacked the speed endurance with Lemaitre has loads of. He needs more power. To make a silly analogy from Saturday Night Life, "We gotta have more cowbell", "We gotta have more power". He will almost always lose in the 100 & 200 if his starts don't get more explosive. He just leaves too much ground to cover agains the worlds top 3 or 4 sprinters. At the end of the day though we have to remember that he is still only 21 although he will be 22 shortly. 2016 will be his time to shine but I want it now!! Haha.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Best video quality up to now:

[video=youtube;FV1yWHiFeiI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV1yWHiFeiI[/video]

He looks quite "heavy" in comparison to the others.Might be muscle fatigue from training
Some "stimulants" might be handy :icon_tongue:

 

[frederic38]

good, i was afraid that he would run 10.20
he will feel less pressure now
how does it compare with last year at the same time in the same conditions? (big meet, and taking the wind into account)

 

[jacknyc]

Yep, same old story. Nearly in last place for first third of race, outruns most of the others (as always, excluding Bolt and Powell) in the second half. Respectable time, but no indication he's pointed towards Olympic 100m glory. I'm not saying he's peaking at 100m, but, watching that first 40 meters, I can only stick with the argument I've made for two years now: He's a 200m man. He may even have 400m potential. But in the 100m, he's just not got the initial push to keep up.

Anyway, I rate the performance as neutral. Nothing exciting, but not a negative. At least it dispels our worst fears.

Well Christophe still has it - great speed!
That's the good news - very good news considering his performances earlier this year. I'm very happy and relieved about that.
But unfortunately, it seems his drive phase has not improved at all. He was already behind at 10 meters, and really behind at 30 meters. He really really needs to improve his drive phase in order to medal. But this is old news, and supposedly this is what he's been working on, but I don't see any improvement there.
So, to Trackster's point, 200m may be a better race for him than the 100m.

 

[whiteathlete33]

So a 10.04 today? Not bad. he should be cracking 10 very soon. Pardon me for this stupid question. I rarely follow track. How much longer is the season and about how many races does he have left?

 

[elispeedster]

Exactly.
On TV his first 30 meters looked like he had lost his rhythm/could not get a rhythm or something . I also noticed that his quadriceps looked bigger than last year so his heavy lifting must been a little better than last year same time.

Yes, he does look bigger, but is he stronger? It is not the size that matters, it is the strength-to-body-weight ratio that is most important. From a previous poster, his weight room stats are nothing to write home about.

 

[white lightning]

This answer is in reply to whiteathlete. The outdoor season doesn't really start until May so it's got 2 or 3 months left. Christophe is only a blink of an eye away from another sub 10. He will be fine but it's frustrating as many here see him with the ability run way faster than 9.92 in the 100 and 19.80 in the 200 meters. Those are amazing times but he is simply that good. He should have been a better starter by now. That shows a lack of strength and explosiveness out of the blocks. He does seem to react to the gun better but he just has very little to no drive phase. This can only be cured with weights, plyometrics, hill training, box jumps and a good diet!!

I highly recomend that you try to watch the 2012 European Track and Field Championships at the end of June. It is going to be special as all of the track athletes we follow will be there. Just think all of the best of Europe with both men and women. Amazing athletes and amazing competition. Give it a chane whiteathlete. We will have a link to watch it daily when it starts if your interested. You won't be sorry. You will also fall in love with many of the female track and field athletes. So beautiful and yet they still are natural. Not like some of the other athletes from around the world that look more like a male than a female.

There will be many meets this summer but not bigger then the 2012 London Olympic Games.

 

[whiteathlete33]

This answer is in reply to whiteathlete. The outdoor season doesn't really start until May so it's got 2 or 3 months left. Christophe is only a blink of an eye away from another sub 10. He will be fine but it's frustrating as many here see him with the ability run way faster than 9.92 in the 100 and 19.80 in the 200 meters. Those are amazing times but he is simply that good. He should have been a better starter by now. That shows a lack of strength and explosiveness out of the blocks. He does seem to react to the gun better but he just has very little to no drive phase. This can only be cured with weights, plyometrics, hill training, box jumps and a good diet!!

I highly recomend that you try to watch the 2012 European Track and Field Championships at the end of June. It is going to be special as all of the track athletes we follow will be there. Just think all of the best of Europe with both men and women. Amazing athletes and amazing competition. Give it a chane whiteathlete. We will have a link to watch it daily when it starts if your interested. You won't be sorry. You will also fall in love with many of the female track and field athletes. So beautiful and yet they still are natural. Not like some of the other athletes from around the world that look more like a male than a female.

There will be many meets this summer but not bigger then the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Thanks whitelightning! I'm hoping he gets a sub 10 second time real soon. My only hope is that he isn't anywhere near his peak. We've seen plenty of white runners get super close to the 10 second mark and then actually regress. Christophe already has sub 10 second times but we need more. I'd like to see him get a 9.85 this year.

 

[Soccer&track]

Although I don't have nearly the eye for watching sprinting as some others here, it looks like his turn over rate slowed down slightly in the last 20-30 meters and it also looks like he sort of "half" coasted through the finish line. Like some have posted here recently, he looked like he was exhausted near the end of the race. To me, this is promising as I think he will gain quite a bit of speed endurance over the next couple months. I personally think he is growing into his bigger/heavier self. Powell and Bolt are still able to pull on him, but the gap is getting much smaller! I do think he will be able to break his PR in the 100 this year. I will say though, he looks like he just simply needs to get stronger!

 

[LoLy]

CL comment on his race

"La place est bonne, a réagi le Français sur Orange sport. Le temps, c'est ce que j'espérais à peu près. Je me suis fait bouffer au départ, je n'ai pas poussé comme d'habitude. J'étais vraiment à la ramasse, donc j'ai dû m'employer pour rattraper les autres. On s'attendait à 10"00, voire moins si possible. Je suis content de la place et du chrono"

"the ranking is good. The time is what I was roughly expecting. They passed me at the start, I didn't pushed as usually. I was really away, so I had to work hard to catch again the other guys. With the coach, we were expecting a 10.00, or lower if possible. Anyway, I'm satified with the ranking and the time"

 

[lactatking]

Lemaitres Start

You can see, that he pops up at the start.

Look here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1bBpWoi3OU at 4:36min.

The same problem as ever: He has no power.
He doesn't force away from the starting block (sorry for my English, i can't explain what I really mean)

But I think, that he das changed the position of his head at "On your marks". Now he looks down.

 

[ZELLGADISS]

Very good race for Lemaitre 10.04
10.04 -0.1 is around 10.03 basic time(0 meters sea level, 0 m/s wind)
The last year in Rome he made 10.00 +0.6 , 10.03 basic time.

So more or less same he got same now, so great for Lemaitre.

By the other hand, really anybody is so super optimistic thinking that Lemaitre can to get 9.85 this year?Sorry, but 99.99% no.

His best time is 9.92 but with 2.0 wind, his best times after are 9.95 +1.0 with medium wind.

His final meters hardly wil can to improve so much, and his first 30 meters are same that last year.
If he get around 9.90 this year, we should to be very very happy.

To improve is a lot of harder that most people here can to think....

 

[frederic38]

Very good race for Lemaitre 10.04
10.04 -0.1 is around 10.03 basic time(0 meters sea level, 0 m/s wind)
The last year in Rome he made 10.00 +0.6 , 10.03 basic time.

So more or less same he got same now, so great for Lemaitre.

thanks, that's what i was wondering
and considering all the pressure he had (because everyone was saying that this season so far his best time was 10.45) that's great
he will be more relaxed now

 

[ZELLGADISS]

One question.
I know that Lemaitre will run 100 in European Championship end of June.
And after in Paris DL.

But this month, will he run in other events?
Almost 1 month for to begin European Championship and perhaps Lemaitre needs 1 100 more before i think, so anybody know something?????