European sprinting hope Christophe Lemaitre cruised into the semi-finals of the 100m on the opening day of the European Championships here on Wednesday. The defending double European sprint champion, seen as one of the biggest hopes of breaking Jamaican and US sprinting dominance at this summer’s Olympics, clocked 10.14sec in winning his heat, easing up with 10 metres to run.
French teammate Jimmy Vicaut also advanced in 10.18sec, but veteran Christine Arron, a two-time world bronze medallist, crashed out of the women’s 100m after managing only fifth place in 11.50sec in her heat. The evening session sees Briton Mohammed Farah go in the men’s 5000m final, looking to build on the gold medal he won at last year’s World Championships in Daegu. The Somali-born runner, who won European golds in the 5000 and 10,000m in Barcelona in 2010 and is also targeting the double in London, refused to get carried away with his favourite’s tag.
“If you don’t pace yourself, if you don’t cover every move, something can happen and always there are new guys coming through no matter what,” said Farah. “In Daegu I was not even thinking about Ibrahim Jeila (in the 10,000m when he was edged into silver), I was thinking about the other guy who came third, (Imane) Merga, that is the guy I had raced all season and this guy I have never raced. “It is not going to be easy (in Helsinki), it is not going to be a walk in the park.”