Wilfried Happio wins, at 23, his first international award. He brought his fifth medal to France in these European championships.
Le Monde with AFP
French Wilfried Happio won the 400m silver medal of the European athletics championships in Munich, Friday August 19, in a race dominated by the Norwegian Karsten Warholm.
The reigning Olympic champion and world record holder won in 47 s 12 ahead of Wilfried Happio (48 s 56). Turkish Yasmani Copello (48 s 78) finished third, depriving French Ludvy valiant of the bronze medal for a hundredth of a second (fourth in 48 s 79).
After his fourth frustrating place at the Eugene Worlds (United States) last month, Happio won, at 23, his first international medal that crosses a season marked by his immense progress.
“Happy”
“It comes like a icing on the cake. It is an end of the season like the summer season, with a lot of happiness, satisfaction. I leave this happy race,” said Wilfried Happio.
But his year is not limited to sporting exploits. Wilfried Happio is the target of a complaint filed on June 30 by a French international athlete, which denounces repeated touching which would have taken place at INSEP, where the two athletes train, on the night of September 20, 2021. The Young woman is the sister of the man who had struck Happio in the face in Caen at the end of June, a marking moment of the French athletics championships, where he had been titled a few minutes later, a headband on his left eye.
In Munich, Wilfried Happio brings her fifth medal to France in these championships (two in silver, three in bronze). The Frenchman could not do anything against Karsten Warholm, definitively recovered from the muscle tear which had prevented him from presenting himself to the best of his form at the Worlds, where he finished seventh.
“It is all the more appreciable since I learned that the victories were rare and that we must know how to appreciate them, because in sport, everything is fine. I am very happy to be back” , launched the Norwegian.
Third French present for the final, Victor Coroller took the eighth and last place in 50 s 46.