Forget the prestige of the 100-meter dash: At the World Athletics Championships (which will end August 27) in Budapest, the 400 meters hurdles is king. Not that this discipline – infamous for being particularly demanding – is in vogue on the banks of the Danube, but it promises to be a top-level battle between the three best performers of all time: Norway's Karsten Warholm, the world record-holder and Olympic champion at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Brazil's Alison dos Santos, the reigning world champion, and the American Rai Benjamin, the eternal runner-up to the athletes mentioned above. Three styles and three impressive records.
"And I'm trying to find my place amid all this," Wilfried Happio told Le Monde with a laugh. "I've clearly ended up with a generation of nutcases." Yet the 24-year-old Frenchman no longer has much to envy from the greats of his sport since finishing fourth at the World Championship in Eugene (U.S.) in 2022. The rookie surprised everyone by completing his lap in 47 seconds 41, just two-hundredths of a second off the podium.
"I was extremely frustrated at the time. I spent a few nights thinking about the race. But looking back, I can't be disappointed. I didn't think I could run that fast!" Since then, the Frenchman has confirmed his blossoming at the highest level. As vice-European champion this winter and now firmly established in the global top 5, he'll have a chance to exact his revenge during the World Championships. The 400 meters hurdles semi-finals will take place on Monday, August 21, and the final is scheduled for August 23.
With just one year to go before the Olympics, Happio could represent the next generation of French track and field athletes who, suffering from a generational gap and a lack of medals, are longing to emerge.
In France, history has already made him the heir to one of the greatest figures in this sport: Stéphane Diagana, who was crowned world champion in the 400-meter hurdles in Athens in 1997. In Oregon, the athlete from Ile de France came close to the French record – long the European record – set by his illustrious elder 28 years ago (47 seconds 37).
"From a personal and symbolic point of view, beating the French record would mean a lot to me. It's a model of success," explained the athlete, who has never been so close to adding his name to the record books.
"He has the talent and, now, the physical strength, the technical and emotional mastery, to beat this record at a major event," said Diagana in early August. "I even think he'll achieve a double hit: The medal and the record." An opinion shared by Happio's coach, Olivier Vallaeys: "All his performance indicators are in the green. To say he can get a medal or set a record in Budapest is no guff. But these are hurdles, and there are always a dozen reasons why you can make mistakes. We'll have to be ready on the big day."
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