Christophe Lemaitre "White Lightning" 9.92 and 19.80!

[mastermulti]

Just for fun let's add two metres per second to that wind (call it +1.7), use the oft stated theorem (2 metres wind is worth 0.13 second) and re-evaluate things.......
9.71.9.77,9.81, 9.87, 9.96 which looks much more impressive on the page. He is a quarter of a second, 3 metres behind the fastest man who ever lived and pulled nearly a metre back on Powell in a month or 6 weeks since they last met.
The third placed man Blake ran a PB which cannot be predicted and Bailey also ran well. These two have done their apprenticeships and are used to racing the top two guys.

Christophe is in his "first year" apprenticeship to enhance his strengths and work on his weaknesses. I've been a trades teacher and can liken the situation to having a very gifted stage one student. He may be a gem but you cannot hope for this student to hand in a final project to compete against the best year 3 or 4 students no matter what promise he shows. The experience just isn't there to draw from.

He needs to be invited to these meets from now on to get familiar with the situation. Bolt , as we've seen, can laugh, joke, do rabbit ears on people even before a race because pressure isn't an issue. I think he enjoys it.
On the other hand Christophe is there dwelling on "what ifs" for a week leading up to the race in his own back yard. Personally I think another sub 10.10 here is great work because, for all the flaws shown in various stages of his race, he is so fast he'll do these times anyway

 

[Bk21]

I can't beleive from how long ago you are following "Christophe"!! I thought it was an athlete that didn't interest much outside the frontiers of France!
you should see him on interview, very stable, not influenced by media, pressure nor money! very humble and hates to lose, he doesn't takes his 9.98 as an achievement and wants to go way further than that!
P.S: I read on this forum that here we call him " The Master" this isn't quite true, "LEMAITRE" is his family name and means "Themaster" all in one word
- white lightning are you french? (you know very well french info websites)
bonne nuit à tous!

 

[white lightning]

I totally agree with you mastermulti. Even a couple of days before the race, I warned members here not to get their hopes up too high. He is still a 20 year old kid at the end of the day. Despite everything going wrong, he made up some ground and ran a very ugly 10.09! How can anyone run that fast despite the horrific form. It shows his true talent.

I only wish he could have had one more race before the Euro Champs to get this out of his head. In reality though, he needs some rest and then to get his form back in training. He may p.b. at the Euro Champs. If not, he will get it in another meet before the summer is over!

 

[white lightning]

http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=en&sourceid=ie8-activity&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ledauphine.com%2Factualite%2F2010%2F07%2F16%2Fencore-un-autre-monde

 

[sport historian]

I totally agree with you mastermulti. Even a couple of days before the race, I warned members here not to get their hopes up too high. He is still a 20 year old kid at the end of the day. Despite everything going wrong, he made up some ground and ran a very ugly 10.09! How can anyone run that fast despite the horrific form. It shows his true talent.
<div> </div>
<div>I only wish he could have had one more race before the Euro Champs to get this out of his head. In reality though, he needs some rest and then to get his form back in training. He may p.b. at the Euro Champs. If not, he will get it in another meet before the summer is over!</div>

It is not a good idea to become too emotionally involved.

 

[trackster]

Guys, wind legal is wind legal. No one remembers what the wind was doing when Bolt set his world records, or Powell, or Carl Lewis, or Armin Hary, or Charley Paddock. Just as long as it's legal. This bit where we add in excuse points is kind of silly. Knock of a few tenths here for the wind, knock off a few tenths there for nerves, knock off a few tenths because his underwear was too tight...hey, he's got the world record!

The thing is, everyone in the race would have had their own problems. Maybe Bolt was jet lagged, maybe Powell was psyched out by Bolt, maybe Blake was nervous, maybe Bailey was feeling run down. And they all had the same wind. But those guys kicked his ass royally, even the guy who's his same age. Bottom line, he's a fast kid, a wunderkind, but he still looks like a kid next to the big Jamaican roiders, and that means he should be outworking them every day until he's better. If Christophe and his coach are sitting back, thinking, "not bad, given
the wind," he's never going to catch up. No more weeks of burgers and interviews. WORK, Christophe! WORK!

 

[white lightning]

I agree with that. NO MORE EXCUSES! As the comedian says, "Get her done". Lol. We have read many interviews with Christophe and there are a few things that stand out. One is that his coach will not allow him to ever have a big head. He is constantly breaking down his raceseven when he wins. The coach points out what Lemaitre is doing wrongand his coach wasn't even that happy with his sub 10 race. That is the sign of a good coach.
The second thing we have learned is that Christophe can't stand to lose. He has always hatedlosing since he first started running which was only 5 years ago. That is the sign of a true champion. I would be willing to be that Pepe will be training harder than he ever has over the next two weeks. I have no doubt in my mind. No one hurts more than he does at the moment. That will fuel his fire to be the best even more.

Over the next few years, he needs to add strength obviously but he also needs to perfect his form. If you watch Bolt, Powell, Gay and even Blake, they make it look so fluid. It takes time to do this but CLM will get there. When he gets his drive phase down to match the big three, he will have arrived for good. Still alot of work to be done.Edited by: white lightning

 

[mastermulti]

I hope he's running the Monaco meet july 22nd. That's be a nice lead up to the Euros

 

[GiovaniMarcon]

It's truly a sign of CLM's greatness that an excellent time of 10.09 is considered a "disappointment". This is just speculation, but what if CLM pulled a a miracle and set the world record in the 100 or 200 (but especially the 100) meter event?

Just wondering, because it's unlikely he (or anyone else) will ever sniff a sub-9.59 without enough steroids to kill a herd of buffalo, but how do you think the world will react if the fastest man in the history of the world were White? Or, even not so much as set the WR but nabbed an Olympic gold...

Positively? Negatively?

 

[white lightning]

I think the reaction would be negative from the media and fans for the most part if he ever broke the world record or won a gold medal. I'm hoping that someday this will change. Here is a short interview with Lemaitre talking about the race.

http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=en&amp;sourceid=ie8-activity&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Ftempsreel.nouvelobs.com%2Factualite%2Fsport%2F20100717.REU4390%2Fathletisme-christophe-lemaitre-doit-encore-apprendre.html

 

[freedom1]

I think we'd have at least a couple of Jewish sportswriters die of heart attacks.

 

[white is right]

I remember reading years later on Borzov winning gold. Famed NY writer Red Smith wrote" the worlds fastest man is a commie!". Obviously nobody will write that, but Smith wasn't enthusiastic that a non American won even a blond haired blue eyed Ukrainian. Edited by: white is right

 

[foobar75]

I watched the video 4 times, looking for different things. Here's one thing that is noticable every time: how scrawny Christophe looks next to Bolt and Powell. If you watch the video at Universalsports.com, pay particular attention to the replay from about 2:00-2:10. This section has all 3 of them from the front, so you can very easily see Chrisophe in the middle and compare to the other two.

Let's just go with Bolt for now. Bolt is not the most buffed sprinter out there. He's about 6'5/205, with a lean build. But he's obviously spent time in the weight room. His shoulders and quads are well developed. Christophe, on the other hand, appears not to have ever lifted any weights in his life. His upper body, especially, needs some serious work. He's almost 6'3, I believe, but what is his weight? He cannot be more than 160-165lbs.

So, it is even more impressive that he can run these kinds of times despite his size and being built more like a middle-distance runner. However, to compete amongst the best sprinters in the world and become a regular sub 10s runner, he needs to bulk up a little bit. Just imagine what he could do then.

It seems to me that his frame can support an additional 15-20bs of muscle. So, he needs to get on with a legit and hardcore weight-training and nutrition program, because his time is now. As many here have mentioned already, the added bulk (carefully monitored, of course) should help him off the blocks tremendously. His closing speed is already there, and if he can just take care of the starts/form, we will see the days where if he's not routinely running 9.8s and 9.9s (like Bolt, Powell, et al), we'll be disappointed.

Best of luck to him in the European Championships!

 

[white lightning]

I agree. He needs to put on some serious muscle. Especially his upper body but fixing his form is just as important. Here is another interview with him from a couple of days ago.

http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=en&amp;sourceid=ie8-activity&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Fsport%2Farticle%2F2010%2F07%2F16%2Fchristophe-lemaitre-bolt-n-est-pas-une-reference-absolue_1388261_3242.html

 

[greyghost]

firstly good performance by lemaitre with 10.09, while obviously sandwiched between powell and bolt. good consistency even while under serious pressure and obviously ran like a rabbit in front of headlights. with regard to muscle, time has to be taken and it done cleverly. any white north american sprinters in the last few yrs have been forced to put on bulk! but its effectivity must be questioned eg. crawford and connaughton, both look like bodybuilders. hopefully byram will be allowed to develope naturally as he has not a big build, neither has lemaitre thankfully his coaches are not forcing things , ie forcing him to get bigger. this should come gradually over an 18month 2 yr period. this guy will be ready for 2012 2016.

 

[trackster]

From the first translated article: "I was
very good, I had no pressure against those who were around me, I was as
usual in my concentration (...) Maybe I'm not used to I rub at large ",
he said, admitting however, a certain fatigue related to its new status
and one week of solicitations of any kind."

In other words, he had no energy, thanks to dealing with his newfound fame and everyone wanting a piece of his time. Now maybe part of that is him being so excited he couldn't sleep, after the big sub-10. So that should pass. But the other part is that his rinky-dink coach/management needs to start protecting him from media overexposure. There's no excuse for him going into the most important race of his life tired. Time to turn down the interviews and let his spikes do the talking.
</span>

 

[Sub10.00]

NO. WHY WOULD IT BE NEGATIVE!OF COURSEIT WOULD BE POSITIVE.<div>
</div><div>You guys guys man Smh... Looking for something Negative to talk about.</div><div>
</div><div>It just makes me shake my head when you guys think like this. I think you actually want there to be negatives for him, so you have something to moan about. If a WHITE man breaks the record and wins anOlympicgold in the 100, the opportunities would be endless for him. The only negatives would come from THIS board, as to why he ain't getting a $200m contract or some sh*t.</div>

 

[white lightning]

I'm sure his coach and his student have learned from this experience. Christophe will be better off because of this. Some times too much success too soon can be bad. The kid is hungry like the wolf(Duran Duran), and they will aspire to bigger and better things. I understand where your coming from but don't lose faith trackster. Just like Wheating had to learn from today. Lemaitre will do the same thing. I see great things down the road!

 

[Observer]

but how do you think the world will react if the fastest man in the history of the world were White? Or, even not so much as set the WR but nabbed an Olympic gold...

Positively? Negatively?

Edited by: Observer

 

[Observer]

but how do you think the world will react if the fastest man in the history of the world were White? Or, even not so much as set the WR but nabbed an Olympic gold...

Positively? Negatively?

Sub10.00 has a point, at least partially, I think. There would be many endorsement opportunities for Lemaitre, just as there has been for Wariner.

As for the treatment by the press, I think that Lemaitre would be kindly praised, and then gently dismissed as not being as funny and as colorful as Bolt; as entertainment is our daily fare, whether in entertainment or in sports. But perhaps a creative ad agency would wish to build a cult following upon the young Frenchman, cashing-in on his handsome but boyish looks, and the suave sound of the French language. I see it now, he is racing at full speed down the streets of Paris to escape the crowd of screaming girls (with our own Lisa D in hot pursuit!), he ducks off into a fancy restaurant, says something suave in French and pulls out his credit card... and orders a hamburger and chips as the waiter pulls out his hair in disgust.

Edited by: Observer

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

perhaps some of our French posters will know the answer to this, because i am curious ...

is Lemaitre making a lot of money? he seems to be a somewhat high profile athlete in France, so does this translate into large monetary compensation? i would like to know how he compares to the high profile black athletes.

thanks in advance for any help on this matter.

 

[Bk21]

@jimmy chitwood,
well he's not that famous for non-sportive followers here in France, his fame is just starting after his sub 10! so not a lot of money right now, and he refuses publicity contracts (til now) because he says that he's not interested in money (and publicity duties) so he doesn't want to waste his time..
so I think he doesn't make a lot

 

[nash99]

What are some of you people bitching about....? Outside of Tyson Gay these are probably the top 8 sprinters in the world and Lemaitre finished 5th...and he is the youngest guy out there! The times for all these guys were slow. I would have thought Bolt would have done a 9.7 and Powell a 9.8 at least. If they had and Lemaitre had run a 9.9 and finished 5th would you be happy? Fact is he is one of the top 7 or 8 sprinters in the world and he is only 20. That is huge!

 

[mastermulti]

it wasn't slow at all... it was a meet/track record for goodness' sake.

Lemaitre is only a quarter of a second down on the world's fastest ever human....same conditions, same day, same race. That is huge!

AND he's picked up three quarters of a metre on Powell in 5 weeks.Edited by: mastermulti

 

[FastEuro]

True, still young at 20...the test will come this indoor season, if he choses to compete. If he brings his 60 down to the upper 6.4's lower 6.5's this will translate into consistent sub 10's being he has great top end speed acceleration in the middle and late of a race. His start and hitting top speed early (like bolt and Powell) is what is holding him back which will come from heavy explosive strength training.