The exploit will not take place.
Kevin Mayer knew it, his return to the European Athletics Championships only a few weeks after his coronation at the Worlds was a bet.
The Frenchman couldn't dream for long in Munich.
After starting the 100m, the first event of the decathlon, he was finally forced to slow down his race considerably, and finished last in 11″67.
Visibly embarrassed, Kevin Mayer confirmed an injury to the adductor magnus at the microphone of France TV a few moments later, a pain he has been feeling for several months already.
😟 Hard blow entering the Olympiastadion...
🇫🇷 Kevin Mayer stopped his race 30 meters from the finish of the 100 m decathlon by holding the back of his thigh.
💻 Follow #Munich2022 on France 2, France 3 and France 4.
– FFAthlétisme (@FFAthlétisme) August 15, 2022
“In the 50m, when I start to see that it's getting tighter and tighter, I don't know how long it's going to hold.
Above all, I don't want to leave with an injury.
My mind forbids me to give up, but my experience tells me that sometimes we drool for 6 months because of this kind of error, "he explained, he for whom the priority remains the preparation of the Olympic Games. of Paris 2024. This competition was only a bonus in an already successful season.
“Eyes bigger than stomach”
“I absolutely did not want it to blow up.
This pain, I have had it for three months before (the Worlds in) Eugene.
It was such an incredible goal to succeed in winning two medals in three weeks, that I wanted to give myself a chance to get there, regardless of my feelings,” adds the world record holder in the discipline.
Read alsoWorld Athletics Championships: two years from the Paris Olympics, behind Mayer, the desert and concern
On his face, a visible disappointment mitigated by a world title, but above all the awareness that the task was perhaps too ambitious.
“I am truly sorry for all those who believed in this achievement.
I believed it too.
I gave myself the opportunity but it's not called an achievement for nothing.
I may have had eyes bigger than my stomach, ”he concluded.
For Kevin Mayer's next priority deadline before the Paris Olympics, go to the Worlds in Hungary in August 2023.