2024-03-22 06:54:51
It will only be a postponement, he assures us. Kevin Mayer abandoned the San Diego decathlon in California, United States, on Thursday after suffering adductor discomfort. If the headliner of French athletics wanted to qualify for the goal of a lifetime, the Paris Olympic Games, he said he was “not worried” about the competition, still determined to obtain his ticket. entry before summer.
It was therefore above a parking lot, where the University of San Diego stadium is located, that Kevin Mayer once again put the brakes on his Olympic goal, in the indifference of a small university meeting sunny. Affected in the “adductor major on the right side” according to his own diagnosis, the 32-year-old Frenchman called it quits during the high jump, the fourth of ten decathlon events.
“Be more lenient with myself”
Qualification for the Games, which requires 8,460 points, should only be a formality for the world record holder in the discipline, who had accumulated 9,126 in 2018. But after his retirement at the World Championships in Budapest last summer, Kevin Mayer has not completed a decathlon since his world title in Eugene (Oregon, United States) in July 2022, and must absolutely validate the minimums before June 30.
It will ultimately not be in San Diego, where the double Olympic vice-champion was once again let down by his body. “He had more to lose than to gain. He will heal quickly and start a new decathlon,” assured the boss of the French team Romain Barras, justifying the athlete’s caution.
After a first alert in the morning in the left knee during the warm-up for the length, it was finally discomfort in the adductor major on the right side contracted after his arrival in the United States on March 5 which prevented him from passing a bar up to par. Bandaged on the right thigh, Kevin Mayer preferred to say stop, after two unsteady runs and a meeting with those around him.
But despite this “fatigue contracture” which he hopes to resolve “in ten days”, “Kéké” maintains total confidence for the Paris Games. “I’m not worried about qualifying. It’s the decathlon, we’re all screwed up (hurt),” he told the few French media present on site, with a quickly regained smile. “I have become my own coach, my own physical trainer, I am a bit of my mental trainer too, I have to learn to be more lenient with myself,” he insisted.
“On the day of the Games, my legs will be on fire”
“I can completely see myself in a full Stade de France on D-day, don’t worry,” the athlete continued to reassure, assuring that qualification was “the smallest of my problems.” “The day I will be on the track at the Stade de France, I can tell you that it will be a huge pleasure,” he assured.
“I know that I have had the Games in mind for two years, and that on the day of the Games, my legs will be on fire. I can’t ask my brain to do the same for minimums,” added the athlete. Near the Parisian, his trainer Alexandre Bonacorsi already assured Thursday that “there will be plans B, C, D, E, F if necessary, until June 30”, describing a “concentrated”, “confident” athlete ”, and even “much more serene than in previous years”.
VIDEO. Kevin Mayer: the decathlon record holder in 10 unexpected questions
In San Diego, the double decathlon world champion had correctly attacked his day over 100 m in 10 seconds 75, his “best comeback”. He then experienced a first alert during the warm-up for the length, with a slight twist in his left knee due to the loss of spikes located under his shoe. Frustrated by his mark of 7.07 m, he was brilliant in the shot put, dispatching 16.10 m with a liberating cry, for his best throw in three years.
After giving up on a decathlon in Australia in December and abandoning in San Diego, “Kéké” should go get his Olympic ticket in Europe in the spring. The decathlon world record holder has become accustomed to time-pressured Olympic qualifications: in 2012, he obtained it at the beginning of July, a month before the Olympics after three withdrawals, while in 2016 he won it at the end of May.
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