10th IAAF World Athletics Championships-Marie just misses Seychelles’ 200m record |10 August 2005
Not considered a true 200-metre sprinter for he concentrates on the one-lap (400m) race, Marie clocked a personal best 21.65 seconds to take sixth position in the second of the six 200-metre heats of the 10th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Norway.
Running in lane number five, Marie’s time is four hundredths of a second slower than Cyril Brioche’s record of 21.61 seconds set at the Fourth All-Africa Games in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1987. But it has gone down as the second fastest ever electronic time clocked by a Seychellois.
The previous second fastest was Denis Rose’s 21.87 seconds clocked at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA, in 1984.
In heat number two won by Frenchman Ronald Pognon in 20.37 seconds, Marie finished ahead of Rostam Noor Adi Bin of Brunei (24.05 seconds) while big name sprinter Obadele Thompson of Barbados did not start the race.
Marie’s performance was also much faster than those of six more sprinters.
The top-three finishers in each of the six heats and the participants with the eight fastest times qualified for the semifinals.
Mauritian Stephan Buckland is among the qualifiers after winning heat number one in 20.94 seconds, while American Tyson Gay clocked the fastest qualifying time of 19.99 seconds in heat number six.
Meanwhile, Céline Laporte, Seychelles’ other representative in Helsinki, was expected to be in action last night in the 100-metre hurdles heats.
G. G.