Everything is going very fast at the moment with Wilfried Happio. The French runner in the 400m hurdles came within nothing of the medal at the World Athletics Championships currently taking place in Eugene. In a race where the Brazilian Alison dos Santos was crowned world champion with the third fastest time of all time in 46”29, Happio failed in 4th place.
Fail is a big word. His time is astounding: he cut 1 second and 70 tenths off his record (a madness at this level) and almost made it to the podium in one of the greatest competitions in the world.
Taken back in the final stretch
In a boiling Hayward field, Happio (47”41) glimpsed the bronze after a superb race, before seeing the American Trevor Bassitt (47”39), pushed by the crowd, go up in the home stretch and pass it over the line.
For the moment it is a disappointment, to stay at the foot of the podium. But I feel that I am passing a course. I knew I had to go strong, I felt good, fast. The last hurdles were more complicated, at the end I miss it a bit. The American may have gone slower, congratulations to him, but it’s the last time he does this to me! “, reacted the Frenchman in the mixed zone, his eyes misty.
Junior European champion in 2017 then hopeful in 2019, Happio has just beaten his personal best three times in four races, the combination of a long work and the contribution of his sponsor’s new shoes, which arrived at the end of June, in the line of magic shoes that have been helping to boost performance on the track for three years.
“It sounds crazy, but it’s been three years since I stagnated in 49 seconds while I was training hard. Above all, there was a click to be had, mentally. When you are very young and doubts arise, you stumble, you set limits for yourself. Today I haven’t fixed any, that’s what it looks like. »
Punch and complaint for sexual assault
On June 25, this hope of tricolor athletics received a violent punch in the face on the stadium of a Caen high school a few minutes from a victory at the French Championships with only one eye open. We will learn later that the sister of his attacker filed a complaint against Happio shortly after for sexual assault.
The complainant denounces repeated touching which allegedly took place at Insep, where the two athletes train, on the night of September 20, 2021. Insep has opened an internal investigation. The French Athletics Federation (FFA), which selected the athlete for the Worlds, decided not to seize its own disciplinary committee. “I don’t think we have to take the place of justice and we are not in an absolute emergency,” said national technical director Patrick Ranvier.