At the age of just 20, Christophe Lemaitre won the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres gold medals at the European Championships in Barcelona – the first sprinter ever to do this treble.
He took the 100 metres gold medal in 10.11 secs, then beat Britain’s Christian Malcolm by 0.01 secs to win the 200 metres in 20.37 secs and finally the 4x100 relay with team-mates Jimmy Vicaut, Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux and Martial Mbandjock.
In July, he had shown his potential by running under ten seconds for the first time, with a time of 9.98. He said: “This was my goal. One has to run under ten seconds in order to be part of the world's best.”
