Agency :
European hurdles champion Sasha Zhoya will lead a strong French team to the 2021 World Under-20 Championships (WU20) in Nairobi next week.
France, which arrived in the Kenyan capital on Friday night, will be represented by a reduced contingent of 26 athletes and 10 officials, half the number that competed during last month’s European Junior Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia.
“I was happy to finally win my first international medal last month,” said Zhoya. “I can’t wait for the World U20 Championships to begin. As you can see, we have a strong team in almost all the events.”
The 19-year-old claimed gold in 13.05, just 0.03 shy of his personal best he posted earlier this month. Besides the high hurdles, he has also posted impressive marks in the pole vault, 200m and decathlon in recent years.
France has brought a squad that boasts of five gold winners from the European junior championship and according to their star hurdler, the team is in Nairobi to lay a marker for their home Olympics in three years’ time.
European junior silver winner Emma Brentel, on the other hand, is eyeing a French record at the global championships.
Other foreign teams that arrived in Nairobi are Argentina (8), Algeria (2), Canada (23), Dominican Republic (3), Czech Republic (48), and Botswana (18).
