Lemaitre ends season with 100m victory

France’s Christophe Lemaitre, last month hailed as Europe’s best chance to break the Jamaican-US Olympic sprint hegemony, brought his disappointing season to an end on Sunday with a victory in the men’s 100 metres. Lemaitre, the French record-holder in the 100m with a best of 9.92sec, clocked 10.04sec to finish ahead of St Kitts and Nevis veteran Kim Collins (10.09sec) and Norway’s Ghana-born Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (10.14). His winning time meant that the 22-year-old Frenchman failed to register a sub-10sec time this season, which has been in great contrast to that of 2011. Lemaitre, the defending two-time European double sprint champion, finished fourth in the 100m in the Daegu world championships a year ago and then claimed bronze in the 200m in a French record of 19.80sec. He skipped the 100m at the London Olympics, but after clocking 20.03 in the semi-final could only finish sixth in the final of the 200m in 20.19sec, with the top four finishers going under 19.90sec.