Christophe Lemaitre
Lemaitre at the 2011 World Championships
Christophe Lemaitre ( often wrongly Lemaître also written; * 11 June 1990 in Annecy ) is a French sprinter. With his personal best of 9.92 s, he is so far the only white sprinter in the world that has run the 100 - meter dash in under 10 seconds.
Career and Achievements
Internationally, he appeared for the first time at the Youth Athletics World Championships 2007 in Ostrava in appearance. There he finished third in the 100-meter run and fourth in the 200 - meter race in fifth place. A year later he won the gold medal in the 200 m at the IAAF World Junior Championships 2008 in Bydgoszcz. Subsequently, he was nominated as a substitute runner for the French 4 x 100 m relay at the Olympic Games in Beijing, came there but not used.
Since 2009, Lemaitre also started in the adult area. At the European Indoor Championships in Turin, he reached the semi-final round in the 60 - meter dash. However, the outstanding result of this season, he scored at the European Junior Championships in Novi Sad. He won the title over 100 meters in 10.04 s and thus improved the European junior record of Dwain Chambers by two hundredths of seconds.
With this performance, Lemaitre traveled as fastest Europeans in the world year best list for the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009, where he smoothly moved with the fifth fastest time of all participants in the first round in the quarterfinals. There, however, he was disqualified for a false start. With the French 4 x 100 - meter relay team, he finished eighth.
On 9 July 2010, he ran at the French championships in Valence the 100 meters in 9.98 s and thus remained as the world's first white sprinter under 10 seconds. He also undercut so that the French national record of Ronald Pognon to a hundredth of a second. The following day he secured in 20.16 s also the title in the 200 -meter run and thus equaling the nearly 23 -year-old French record by Gilles Quénéhervé. At the European Championships 2010 in Barcelona, he won at the distance of 100 meters in 10.11 s Thus, since the European Championships in 1962, where Claude Piquemal won, again a Frenchman at this distance, European champion. Also about 200 meters, he won the European title. On the last day of competition he won the 4 x 100 - meter relay his third gold medal at these European Championships. Through its three wins Lemaitre is the first athlete in the same European Championships won the gold medal on each of these three distances. In the same year he was appointed by the sports newspaper L' Équipe France's Sportsman of the Year ( " champion of champions" ) selected.
29 August 2010 Lemaitre increased at the IAAF World Challenge Rieti in the Italian personal best in the 100 meters to a hundredth of a second. In the race in which five runners were under 10 seconds, he finished behind Nesta Carter, Ryan Bailey and Mario Forsythe in 9.97 s fourth place.
At the European Indoor Championships 2011 in Paris Lemaitre won behind the Portuguese Francis Obikwelu and the British Dwain Chambers the bronze medal in the 60 - meter dash. In the outdoor season, he scored further improvements in the 100 -meter run. On 7 June 2011, he rose to 9.96 in Montreuil s Eleven days later, he ran for his victory at the Athletics European Team Championships in Stockholm again a hundredth of a second faster. He set the best time of a European in the last seven years, since Francis Obikwelu had the European record improved at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 on 9.86 sec. Shortly after Lemaitre ran at the Athlétissima in Lausanne again 9.95 s and finished third behind the Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Michael Frater. At the French Championships on July 29, 2011, he improved his time to 9.92 s
At the World Championships in Daegu, Lemaitre came about 100 meters to 10.19 s in fourth place. In the 200 - meter race, he secured behind Usain Bolt from Jamaica and Walter Dix of the United States the bronze medal. With 19.80 s he undercut his best time and the French record by 36 hundredths of a second. For European record of the Italian Pietro Mennea he lacked only eight hundredths of a second. In the 4 x 100 - meter relay team, he won along with Teddy Tinmar, Yannick Lesourd and Jimmy Vicaut in 38.20 s the silver medal behind the Jamaican team that 's achieved a new world record of 37.04.
At the European Championships 2012 in Helsinki, he won in a time of 10.09 s another Gold medal over 100 meters. With the 4 x 100 relay team he finished behind the teams from the Netherlands and Germany this time only the third place. On a title defense in the 200 - meter race he had renounced in respect of his Olympic preparation from the outset.
In London, he resigned at the 2012 Olympic Games on a Fall in the 100 meters in order to focus on a medal in the 200 meters. In the final, but he was then no chance in sixth.
At the World Championships 2013 in Moscow, he did it the other way around and this time reached over the 100 - meter distance to the final. With 10.06 s, he was seventh.
Christophe Lemaitre has a competition weight of 74 kg at a height of 1.89 m. He is coached by Pierre Carraz and starts for the AS Aix -les- Bains.