"I'm super happy, it ends a very good indoor season perfectly. I had a very good race, I'm really super happy, with a great time not far from my personal best. I'm also super happy to bring the first medal at the European Championships, the first since 2013 with Mahiedine Mekhissi (in gold over 1,500m) for the middle distance. I'm on cloud nine," commented Habz in the mixed zone.

The 29-year-old half-founder realizes his potential with a first individual international podium, after two podiums at the European Cross Country Championships in the mixed relay (2nd in 2021, 3rd in 2022).

For this, he took the right car (3:35.39) behind the crazy locomotive of Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:33.95).

Very close to Mehdi Baala's French record this winter, Habz knew he could follow a fast tempo, and the Norwegian toughened up the race from the start to asphyxiate all his opponents except the Frenchman and the Briton Neil Gourley, medalist of money.

The Francilien trains at Insep with Serge Olivarès and Philippe Dupont, historical coach of the tricolor background.

This talent was born in Morocco in the Beni Mellal region (center) where his father, a farmer, still resides.

At 19, with his baccalaureate in hand, he had joined his mother in France after his parents divorced.

In the same race, Louis Gilavert took 6th place (3:39.54).

Another Blue finalist of the day, Benjamin Compaoré failed to find his marks and took 8th place in the triple jump, crushed by the Portuguese Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo (17.60 m, best world performance of the year).

Frenchman Azeddine Habz with his competitors on the 1500m track of the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, March 2, 2023 © YASIN AKGUL / AFP

"The record in the lead"

In an Atakoy Arena with multicolored seats and intermittent awakening, the noise arose for the spectacular outcome of the pentathlon.

Ferocious in the 800m final, the Polish Adrianna Sulek crossed the line first (2:07.17), exhausted, and saw a new world record (5,014 points) appear first.

But the Belgian Nafissatou Thiam, who had taken a little lead after the first four events, exploded her best time over 800 m indoors (2:13.60 against 2:18.80) and slapped the former record to win.

With 5,055 points, she erased the 5,013 points of Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska, achieved in this same room in Istanbul in 2012.

A new reward for the 28-year-old Belgian, with a gigantic track record: two Olympic, three world and two European heptathlon titles, contested outdoors, and a third European pentathlon title, contested indoors.

"I had the record in mind. But you still have to find the right competition and be in good shape. It's a very good sign to have achieved this performance without having been perfect in all my events of the day", he added. she indicated.

Belgian Nafissatou Thiam after her pentathlon world record during the Indoor Athletics Euros in Istanbul on March 3, 2023 © OZAN KOSE / AFP

The Swiss Mujinga Kambundji dominated the 60m in 7 sec 00.

Good last in the 3,000m, the Turkish Emine Hatun Mechaal was strongly applauded during her race.

The athlete was saddened by the death of many friends and family members during the earthquake that killed more than 44,000 people in eastern Turkey almost a month ago.

© 2023 AFP