© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
|
|
COMPETITION  RETRO |
 Rome 1987 - QUENEHERVE A WHISKER AWAY
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
On 3 September 1987, French athletics discovered a new hero. A virtual unknown named Gilles Quénéhervé burst from the pack in the men’s 200m. The young hopeful was only just caught on the line by the great Calvin Smith but still walked away with an unexpected silver medal.
 |
| Vandystadt |
The World Championships in Athletics in Rome in 1987 were long-awaited indeed. It had been four years since the world’s elite athletes last had the chance to compete outdoors; the Soviet bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics meant the previous global festival of athletics had been the World Championships in Helsinki in 1983. Much was at stake in the Roman arena then; newly forged reputations were on the line and competition fierce right from the very first starting gun. Sefka Kostadinova was the first to rise to the challenge, clearing a new world best in the women’s high jump (2.09 metres). Ben Johnson then caused a real sensation, edging out the legendary Carl Lewis in the 100 metres, only to be disqualified. Lewis was clearly rattled by the experience but was deprived of the opportunity to restore his honour and pride in the 200 metres because he had not made the US team. The fact was that the American 200m sprint team was bursting with talent in 1987; Messrs Heard, Evans, Smith and Lewis held the four fastest times of the year, and there were simply not enough places to go around.
Smith on cruise control
Reigning world champion Calvin Smith was an overwhelming pre-race favourite at the height of his powers in 1987. The 26 year-old native of Mississippi had cruised through his heats , oozing class every time he stepped onto the track. If anyone was expected to put up a challenge it was compatriot Floyd Heard, the only other sprinter apart from Carl Lewis to break the 20 second barrier that year. Smith hardly even flinched when the announcement came over the speakers that he was running in lane 8. The specialist disliked running on the outside lane, preferring to have his prey in front of him. Young French hopeful Gilles Quénéhervé, meanwhile, limbered up in lane 6, happy in the knowledge he had made the final and dreaming of an outstanding run equivalent to the one he had produced in March at the World Indoors in Indianapolis. The 21 year-old sprinter from Racing Club de France finished a very creditable fourth that day, and was tipped to battle it out with home favourite Pierfransesco Pavoni and wily Russian European Indoor silver-medallist Vladimir Krylov for a share of the outdoor spoils behind the Americans.
Notwithstanding the absence of Carl Lewis, this then was the cream of world sprinting that took to the blocks on a balmy late summer’s day in Rome. The gun sounded, and Quénéhervé leapt to the front before negotiating the bend quite magnificently to emerge ahead of the field in the home the straight alongside John Regis from England. Calvin Smith was back in fifth at this point and a shock looked in store, but gradually the American clawed back the inches separating him from the front two.
 |
| Vandystadt |
Photo finish
The three dipped across the line as one. To the naked eye it looked as though Regis had been edged into third, and so it turned out, but the photo finish was needed to separate the Parisian from the American. Both were awarded the same time (20.16), but after an agonising delay it was Smith who was adjudged to have broken the line a fraction of a second in front. Silver it was then; a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay at the following year’s Seoul Olympics would complete Quénéhervé’s medal haul at major championships, but he would never again come so close to ultimate consecration.
|
|
|
|
