When we are accustomed from an early age to cross the stages – like the hurdles – with astonishing precocity, we become accustomed to the demands that surround us. At 20, while playing his first season among seniors, Sasha Zhoya experienced it.
The French athlete, specialist in the 110m hurdles, already has a good business card: European champion and world champion in the junior category, he is also the holder of the cadet and junior world records in the specialty.
Given this pedigree, he knew he was expected, in July, at the world championships in Eugene (Oregon). Especially since he had just, on June 25, won the title of senior French champion by beating his personal best twice (13 s 17 in the final). He himself had announced that he wanted “stepping onto the podium” in the USA.
However, he was eliminated in the semi-finals. “I made a lot of mistakes, but it happens. I didn’t have enough preparation in the last week to do better.”he pleaded, when he arrived at these Worlds with discomfort in the Achilles tendon, which did not allow him to present himself in the form he had displayed until then.
Nothing alarming so much, in recent months, the athlete – born in Australia to a French mother and a Zimbabwean father, who chose to defend the tricolor colors at the start of 2020 – has impressed with his ability to adapt to the transition to adults. In Munich, for his first European championships, he is among the contenders for a podium: entering the running on August 16 and possible final on August 17.
His time at the French championships, had it been successful in the conditions of a world championship final, would have allowed him to be in the battle for third place. It is exactly this time that the Spaniard Asier Martinez, bronze medalist, who will be one of the favorites in Munich, achieved in Eugene.
“Culture of winning”
In Eugene, Sasha Zhoya showed herself to be available and smiling, already professional, with her Australian accent and her mixture of English and French expressions. After his qualification in series, we saw him sketch a few dance steps in the press gallery with his compatriot Just Kwaou-Mathey, also qualified.
A state of mind that one of his two coaches, former sprinter Dimitri Demonière, highlights when asked about the pressure weighing on the shoulders of his protege, already presented as the greatest hope of French athletics two years from the Paris Olympics: “Sasha has an Anglo-Saxon culture. This culture of winning, he has had it since a very young age. He just turned 20. he knows how to adapt very well to this pressure. He’s a somewhat cool person, he has a lot of humor, he’s very relaxed. He’s a showman, it runs in the blood. »
This year, under the leadership of Ladji Doucouré, French record holder in the discipline and ex-world champion, Sasha Zohya had to take up a huge challenge: with the transition from the junior category to the senior category, he had to adapt at a height of hedges of 1.06 meters, against 99 centimeters until then. The difference may seem minimal. However, it requires technical adjustment and a transition period that can sometimes be very long. In the case of Sasha Zhoya, she was spectacularly fast.
« We can see that it’s not going too badly. There is still work”, notes Dimitri Demonière. The principal concerned confirms: “Not doing the indoor season this winter and focusing on technique was a good choice. I manage hurdles at 1.06 meters not too badly. I can always do better. »
During the final of the French championship, despite his excellent time, the new national champion made several mistakes. This augurs well for a margin of progress. “When Sasha achieves his junior world record in Nairobi in 2021, there were also faults. There will always be mistakes, because the perfect race does not exist.explains Dimitri Demonière.
“A great talent”
The emergence of the young athlete does not go unnoticed. “Sasha is a super talent. We know that from the junior ranks. He did a phenomenal job of transitioning the height of the hedges in a fairly short amount of time,” emphasizes the American trainer Andreas Behm, a specialist in the 110m hurdles.
The one who takes care of the American Aries Merritt, still world record holder since 2012 (12 s 80), continues: “He’s not a super tall athlete [1,84 mètre], so sometimes these athletes struggle to get over those extra few inches. He had some growing pains at the start of the year. But he ran in 13 s 17 and he is figuring it out. He will continue to improve. »
In the entourage of Zhoya, we remain cautious, but we do not think less. “We do not comment publicly on its chronometric objectives, but we know what it is worth”loose Dimitri Demonière.
Sasha Zhoya and Ladji Doucouré regularly joke about it. The youngest wants to surpass his eldest, record holder of France in 12 s 97, since 2005: “Ladji teases me, it gives me motivation. He had a great career, but I want to do better than him. He knows it and so he turns me on. He knows his record won’t stay too long [rires]. »
Dance, “its breath of fresh air”
If the trajectory of the hurdler is meteoric, it also sometimes experiences slight jerks. The period of confinement and the difficulties of traveling between France and Australia during the Covid-19 epidemic tested the young man, who even (briefly) thought of stopping everything to embark on his first passion, dance. .
In the opinion of those close to him and of all those who have seen him dance, if there is one discipline in which he excels even more than athletics, it is this one. “Dancing is a regulator for Sasha. He needs it to express himself. It’s his breath of fresh air. We can’t take it away.”confesses Dimitri Demonière.
Discovering the loss at Worlds was another formative step. Andreas Behm anticipated it: “This is going to be his first major senior championship. That will be difficult. Doing a fast time in your country is much easier than doing it in a major competition abroad,” had declared the American trainer to the Monde a few days before the entry into the running of the French.
In Munich, with Eugene’s experience and better conditions, Sasha Zhoya could move up a gear. The Blues really need his talent and his carelessness.