Charles Philibert-Thiboutot still had a lot of remorse, several hours after seeing his presence at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest end in the semi-final of the 1500m on Sunday. With a time of 3 min 37.41 s, the athlete from Quebec, ranked tenth, had to finish in the top six to reach the final.
The runner missed the ax by 1.88 seconds in this second semi-final at a rather slow pace and where the Norwegian and Olympic champion in the specialty, Jakob Ingebrigsten, won in 3 min 34.98 s.
The race was off to a bad start for the Quebecer, who elbowed a Kenyan, which placed him at the back of the pack. The 32-year-old tried to climb back up at the start of the penultimate lap, but was unsuccessful. He came back to the charge at the sound of the bell announcing the last lap while trying to overtake on the outside until the final straight, but his energy reservoir ran out too quickly.
Arrived at his hotel at the end of the evening, the dust had had time to settle for him when he called Sportcom. The one who recorded his personal best two months ago blamed himself for having played his cards wrong to carve out a place in the final at what could well be the last Worlds of his career.
“I rewatched the race and just spent a lot of energy in a vacuum. Everything I thought was going to happen in the peloton didn’t happen and that led me to make bad decisions, explained the rider. Even though I gave it my all on the last lap, before I even broke, I had spent a lot more cartridges than everyone else in the race. »
The one for whom it was not a problem to come back late was the winner Ingebrigsten. The Norwegian even allowed himself to signal to the crowd to encourage the runners more before taking control of the event in the last 100 meters.
“When I saw him in the back, I thought when he passed, I’d go with him. If he didn’t go, there would be other moves in the peloton for openings. It never happened. »
Of the 12 other participants in this semi-final, 10 had recorded a time faster than the best time and personal best of the Quebecer this season, 3 min 32.94 s.
“It’s easy to say after the fact, but as long as he was in that position, he should have stayed in the inside lane to cover as little distance as possible and when he had the energy to make a change of pace. , make it drastic,” explained his coach Félix-Antoine Lapointe.
“But there, he was always a bit between two ideas: not liking the place where he was, so trying to accelerate by getting into lane 2, but the pace was not that fast. The opponents being all of a good level, they did not let him pass or accelerated too, “continued Lapointe, who believes that Philibert-Thiboutot lengthened his race by about twenty meters in the end by remaining on the outside. .
With his Olympic standard already in his pocket, does the runner intend to learn from this disappointment?
” I do not have a choice. We will have to keep this scenario in mind for next year, just in case. »
His coach does not see this semi-final as a missed opportunity for the man who was aiming for the first final of his career at the World Championships and who was 32nd in the world ranking before the race.
Jean-Simon Desgagnés will be the next Quebecer on the track at the Worlds. He will be at the start of the 3000m steeplechase final on Tuesday.
“He’s fit and confident like never before!” I’m going to go to the stadium of 50,000 people and I’m going to cheer him on and hope he hears me so that it gives him the little boost in the last laps when it’s going to be fast and harder. He’s ready and I can’t wait to see him race,” concluded Philibert-Thiboutot in a lighter tone.
