We expected the first French medal of the 2023 world championships in the 110 meter hurdles. But on Monday August 21, at the Nemzeti Atletikai Kozpont stadium in Budapest, Sasha Zhoya (13 seconds 26) and Wilhem Belocian (13 seconds 32) took sixth and eighth place in the final. The two tricolor hurdlers could not do anything in front of their American and Jamaican rivals.

Winner in 12.96 seconds, American Grant Holloway is now a triple world champion. Jamaican Hansle Parchment finished second in 13.07 seconds ahead of another American, David Roberts, third in 13.09 seconds. Under the eyes of Guy Drut, former Olympic champion in the discipline in 1976, present on the France Television set in Budapest, Zhoya and Belocian missed their final a bit.

For the second time in a row, the third tricolor Just Kwaou-Mathey was eliminated in the semi-finals, third in his race in 13 seconds 31. A first slight disappointment for the French hurdler who hatched last year at most high level and who had beaten his personal best at the Paris meeting this year in 13 seconds 09.

In the semi-finals, Sasha Zohya had however shown great things. In Budapest, the reigning double French champion first took a promising second place behind favorite Grant Holloway by even improving his personal best in 13 seconds 15. He could not repeat it in the final.

First World Finals for Zhoya and Belocian

Still, the great hope of French athletics has nevertheless reached a milestone. Last year, diminished by pain in the Achilles tendon, he was eliminated in the semi-finals in Eugene. This season, he had his preparation delayed by a broken toe in May and showed up in Budapest “not a hundred percent” with renewed Achilles tendon pain.

At 21, Zhoya is the talent of French athletics. At the start of 2020, his choice to defend the colors of the France team had been highly publicized. The athlete had different possibilities since he was born and raised in Australia to a French mother, very present at his side, and a Zimbabwean father.

The young man has always lined up the titles: double European champion and junior world champion, European hopefuls champion and also holder of the cadet and junior world records in the specialty.

In 2022, for his first season on the hurdles of 1.06 meters, against 99 centimeters until then, he impresses everyone with his ability to adapt. In Albi in July 2023, Zhoya retained his national title by running in 13.01 seconds, a time not approved because of too favorable a wind, ahead of Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey. “France, the 110 meter hurdles is her event. We were four to have done the minimum. It’s very dense, it was like a semi-final or a world final, “he summed up.

The protege of Ladji Doucouré, record holder of France in 12 probes 97 and world champion 2005, assumed his ambitions upstream of these world championships. “There’s pressure because people want me to go fast, but it’s good pressure,” he said. Before adding: “I want to take the French record, and one day, the world record. But I’m still young in the game, I have to gain experience. »

For his part, Wilhem Belocian can console himself by having qualified for his first world final. A good performance for the man who beat his personal best this summer thanks to a time set at the meeting in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in 13.07 seconds.

At 28, the former 2014 junior world champion finally confirms the expectations placed on him after having experienced many disappointments during his career. Despite some successes – bronze medalist at the European Championships in the 110 meter hurdles in 2016, a European title in the 60 meter hurdles – this precocious talent notably missed his first two Olympic meetings: disqualified in series at the 2016 Games in Rio due to a false start, he was unable to defend his chances in 2020 in Tokyo due to injury, eliminated in the series.

In Rio, his Olympic failure had marked him strongly. “The failure at the Games, at 21, was a big blow, testifies his ex-coach, Ketty Cham. We had to get over it and it took almost two years. »

Promising for the 2024 Olympics

In 2022, when he had begun his return to the highest level, he had suffered further disappointments despite a promising winter season. He finished 8th in the 60-meter hurdles final at the Istanbul Indoor World Championships. Then, injured, he missed the outdoor Worlds before not being selected by the French Athletics Federation for the European Championships in Munich.

In 2023, the confirmation of his potential corresponds to a change of life as he joined Teddy Tamgho’s training group in Lille. In September 2022, he announced his departure for the metropolis, he who had never left his island. “I was really anchored in Guadeloupe, in a comfort zone. If I wanted to pass the course, I had to break this comfort zone and go to the metropolis where I had refused to go for some time, “he analyzes.

In a year, during the Olympic Games in Paris, the two athletes will have to continue their progress and be able to run at their best level in the final. In a very dense discipline, an Olympic medal is at this price.