Rome’s heroes will be out in force in Paris. In addition to Mondo Duplantis, victorious again in the Eternal City, three of France’s four new European champions will be competing on Sunday 7 July at the Charléty Stadium. To date, no fewer than 25 French athletes have confirmed that they will perform at the Meeting de Paris, an event slotted in less than a month before the Paris Olympics and the competition of a lifetime.
Winning the 800 m with real flourish at the Stadio olimpico, Gabriel Tual will be the one to beat as he lines up against his compatriots, Benjamin Robert and Yanis Meziane, in what is shaping up to be a return match after the previous week’s French championships. The 1,500 m specialist Azeddine Habz will also be added to the mix so he can work on his speed and reap the benefits of drafting.
Finot eager to perform in front of a home crowd
The women’s steeplechase will see Alice Finot pounding the track one month on from her superlative performance in Rome. In fact, the athlete is making no secret of the fact that she’s expecting a lot from this race. “The Meeting de Paris will be a final rehearsal for the Olympic Games, up close and personal with the French audience. All the world’s elite performers will be there. It will be quick and it’ll be important to be in good shape and take risks. The race will be a pre-Olympics of sorts,” she explains. Her running mate Flavie Renouard will also be competing, with a delegation of Norman supporters to spur her on. A strong delegation of Bretons is also set to pad out the grandstands since Agathe Guillemot, bronze medallist in the 1,500 m in Rome, will come up against Bérénice Cleyet-Merle, to name but a few.
In the sprint competition, Gemima Joseph, a prominent member of the 4x100 m silver medallist team in the Italian capital, will be competing against the best athletes in the world down the straight, a discipline which saw her make the final in the individual competition in Rome. A finalist in the men’s 100 m and 200 m in Rome, Pablo Matéo will take the start of the latter distance in Paris. Meantime, Sasha Zhoya will be in the starting blocks for the 110 m hurdles alongside his compatriots Aurel Manga and Raphaël Mohamed.
Fields of dream
The jumping and throwing events will have just as much to offer athletes and spectators alike as Thibaut Collet, fifth in the pole vault at the European championships, and the indefatigable Renaud Lavillenie will attempt to tease Duplantis down the straight in Charléty. Meanwhile, high jump specialists Nawal Meniker and Solène Gicquel are guaranteed to put on a show as they try to raise the bar as much as possible.
En route for her seventh Olympic Games, there is no way that Mélina Robert-Michon would want to miss this final dress rehearsal before the jamboree in the Stade de France. Finally, loyally sticking with its tradition of being the only leg of the Wanda Diamond League to offer a hammer throw competition on its programme, Paris will welcome Rosa Loga, bronze medallist at the European championships, Yann Chaussinand, fifth in Roma, as well as Quentin Bigot and Alexandra Tavernier. Competing alongside them will be a plethora of other top-level athletes, across every discipline, in what promises to be a crazy night and the perfect foretaste of the magic of the Games.
A festival for les Bleus
All the spectators at the Meeting de Paris are invited to come to the stadium dressed in blue in support of the French team as they prepare to compete in the Olympic Games. Indeed, in a bid to reflect the atmosphere during the winter’s Indoor Meeting de Paris, a ‘carré bleu’ device will be tasked with livening up the crowd with no fewer than 3000 young athletes and some highly charged supporters kitted out with flags, drums and megaphones. At the end of the evening, a special celebration is planned to fire up the Blues and give them strength in their final preparations for Paris 2024. A moment not to be missed!
