Athletics: Alice Finot improves her French record in the 3,000m steeplechase

Alice Finot, for her first international race of the season, improved her French record in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Diamond League meeting in Florence (Italy) on Friday.

Finot ran in 9 min 10 sec 04, putting a slap of more than four seconds on his record set in 2022 (9:14.34), and passing the minima for the Budapest World Championships (August 19-27).

The 32-year-old athlete, European indoor vice-champion in the 3,000m in 2021, exploded late at the highest level, which she has been with for just over two years.

Finot took 5th place in a fast race, dominated by the Ethiopian Sembo Almayew in 9 min 00 sec 71, the best world performance of the year.

"It's fireworks, I was confident, I'm starting to gain experience and wisdom, until the warm-up I was really calm, I had confidence in the work that was fact, in training and in my feelings especially (...) We are always in a progression, we do not skip the stages, we do things little by little in training. The path (towards the Olympic Games) is being built little by little and with each record, it confirms to us that we are on the right track, we are not changing the pattern, we are continuing with a winning team, ”appreciated the Frenchwoman .

In the 110m hurdles, European bronze medalist Just Kwaou-Mathey also finished 5th (13.35, wind -0.2 m/s), behind American winner Grant Holloway (13.04).