The first French junior world champion
Posted on | July 4, 2011 | Category: Arena
Photo: Erik Borg
Lucas Basset is the new junior sprint world champion. He not only grabbed his first medal at this year’s JWOC but he was also the first ever Frenchman to take a gold medal at Junior World Orienteering Championships.
Basset had a superb race. “I didn’t really expect this. Long and middle distance races are what I have been focusing on”, he says. The Frenchman had a margin of 9.7 seconds to the silver medallist, Andreu Blanes, from Spain. The Swiss Florian Howald finished third.
For some weeks now the winner has had some pain in his legs, but when he started warming up the pain disappeared. He did everything right technically during the race.
Carried to prize-giving
The winner was carried to the prize-giving by his proud team-mates. He was of course very happy, but not only because of the gold itself. “I am the first ever from France to have won a Junior World Championship. That’s really the best of all.”
Thierry Gueorgiou and Philippe Adamski won silver medals at the 1998 and 2005 Junior World Championships respectively but were not able reach first place during their junior years. According to a French team leader, Basset will now run in the Sprint selection race ahead of the senior World Championships on home ground.
A year in Sweden
Lucas has a fifth place in the relay, an 11th place in middle distance and a 13th place in sprint from earlier JWOCs. During the last few months he has increased his training level. From September last year until June the 20-year-old athlete was in Norrköping, Sweden. “I had good training and hard competition there”, Lucas says.
Lucas now thinks he will join the national training centre in St. Etienne but continues to live in his home city, Lyon.
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