Christophe Lemaitre Completes Hattrick at the European Athletics Championship

Christophe Lemaitre became the first sprinter to win three golds at the European Championships. Lemaitre won his first gold from the men's 100m by clocking 10.11, beating some of the big names including  Francis Obikwelu and Dwain Chambers who could only placed fourth and fifth respectively. Silver went to Britain's Mark Lewis Francis and bronze won by Lemaitre's teammate Martial Mbandjock. These four sprinters stopped the clock at 10.18!!

Lemaitre pips Malcolm to win
the 200 in 20.37

Lemaitre's second gold came from the 200m. He narrowly missed out the gold medal but crosses the finish line just ahead Britain's Christian Malcolm. Malcolm led off the bend into the home straight but the fast-finishing by Lemaitre cought Malcolm on the finishing line. Lemaitre clocked a time of 20.37 with Malcolm a mere hundredth of a second behind in 20.38. France's Martial Mbandjock took bronze as he had done in the 100m with a time of 20.42.

French celebrated thier 4x100m winning

In the 4x100m relay, Lemaitre ran the second leg, quickly made up the stagger on Poland but Italy's Emanuele Di Gregorio ran a blistering bend to hand over to Maurizio Checcucci in front. However, Martial Mbandjock (bronze in 100m, 10.18) powered down the straight and overtook Checcucci just before the finishing line to win in 38.11. Italy was crowned to silver in 38.17 and Germany took the bronze in 38.44. Thanks to Mbandjock for helps lemaitre to completed the hattrick.

Lemaitre who trained by a 70-year-old coach, Pierre Carraz, has become the first white man to break 10s barrier in the 100m at the French national championship 3 weeks ago. He consistently run 10.0-10.1 this season and matched the 200m national record 20.16 set by Gilles Queneherve in 1987. And during the 2010 European Championship he surpassed Francis Obikwelu performances who won both European sprint titles in Gothenburg four years ago.

Video:

Men's 100m Final


Men's 200m Final


Men's 4x100m Final