Mathilde Gros falls into the arms of her trainer Grégory Baugé before screaming her happiness. She is in tears when she comes to hug her parents, her family and her supporters. The emotion is at its peak. Tricolor flag in her hands, she then raised the decibels in the Vélodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Twenty-three years after Felicia Ballanger’s last title in individual sprint, Mathilde Gros, 23, became world champion for the first time in her career. “It’s fantastic, I’m so happy to impose myself in front of my audience, she smiles. I felt his energy. I’m living a dream. »
What a path covered in a year when she was in total loss of confidence at the Tokyo Olympics (9th in speed, 13th in the keirin) then at the Roubaix Worlds. Very early in the juniors, the former basketball player who had started her conversion to cycling in 2014 after passing impressive tests on an indoor bike that she had tried “for fun”, had often gone through since her bronze medal in speed at the Worlds in Pruszków (Poland) in 2019. “Since January, Greg Baugé has played a key role, he had already helped me a lot when he was an athlete, explains Mathilde Gros. It is a friend. He knows how I work and I adapted to him. It brings me a lot In the end it’s only positive, it’s a whole dynamic that has been put in place. “.
Since Thursday, she has just been magnificent, imposing her strength and her determination. After beating the double defending champion Emma Hinze in three rounds in the semi-finals, the sprinter from Salon-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), conquering and tactically at the top, took the best in the final on another German, Sophie Friedrich.
Landerneau at the rendezvous
After his disappointment in the keirin (5th) on Thursday, Melvin Landerneau had made an appointment for the kilometer. Crowned European champion in the discipline (which is not on the Olympic program) in Munich this summer, he responded by winning the silver medal (59″568) behind the untouchable Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland (58″106 ). “It’s a great performance,” said Landerneau. Today, I manage to make two identical terminals (Editor’s note: 3rd in the playoffs). It is sure that the public helps a lot, I hope it’s a taste of Paris 2024. Hoogland was the ultra favorite, he was expected and he answered present. For now, it’s hard to get it. There is a big gap. The goal is to return to work to fill it. »
Before the coronation of Mathilde Gros, Filippo Ganna had already ignited the track. The Italian from Ineos Grenadiers won the individual pursuit final, beating by setting a new world record (3′59″636). This is his fifth world title in the discipline, after 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. A huge performance six days after beating the legendary hour record on Saturday (56.792 km / h) on Saturday on the track of the velodrome in Granges (Swiss).