His face and his peroxidized hair may be talked about for a while. 19-year-old athlete Sasha Zhoya has just broken, twice, in two days, the junior world record in the 110 hurdles, finishing his race in 12”72, at the Worlds, in Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, August 21, in addition to being crowned U20 world champion. This is the first time he has gone below the 13-second mark.
WORLD U20 RECORD ?
Already the author of the world record yesterday in the semi-final with 12.93, the nugget of the discipline again pulverizes this mark in the final!
???? Sasha Zhoya – 12″72
?? : +1,0 m/s
RT : 0.138#WorldAthletics #Nairobi2021 pic.twitter.com/CcZQeQApFZ– Vincent Guyot (@Vinc_Guyot) August 21, 2021
The young nugget of French athletics had made the cover of The Magazine Team in 2019, when he was just 16 years old. Since then, the athlete continues to break records.
Small portrait of the one who lives in threes.
The choice between three nationalities
Sasha Zhoya was born on June 25, 2002 in Perth, Australia to a French mother and a Zimbabwean father, which gives him three nationalities. He grew up in Australia and started athletics at the age of eight.
Since he was 17, he has been training in the Clermont club, alongside pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, six months a year. He spends the remaining six months in Australia, where he is coached by Lindsay Bunn and Jason Moyle. Since his debut in the sport, the young athlete had always refused to wear a national jersey, and was shared between these – or his – three countries. The king’s choice? Rather a Cornelian dilemma for someone who was afraid to alienate his country by choosing a nationality other than Australian and had until 2019 to decide according to the regulations of the federations.
In January 2020, Sasha Zhoya finally chose to compete for France rather than Australia or Zimbabwe.
Why France? “Because I was raised by a French mother, I have a lot of French characteristics. I wanted to please him but it’s also because I feel more French, he said then to RFI . The three countries are in my heart. I care as much for France as I do for Australia or Zimbabwe. My father is a music teacher in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He asks me to give him my old clothes so that he can distribute them there. It allows me to show the love I have for Zimbabweans. I spent a lot of time in these two African countries when I was very young. Now it’s more difficult with the training and the classes that I take. “
He performs in … three athletics disciplines
Sasha Zhoya also lives her own discipline in threes. He shines as much in the sprint (personal best in the 100 m at 10”41, cadet French record) as against the hurdles (he holds the 16-year-old world records of 60 m and 110 m in 7”48 and now in the 110m hurdles) than in the pole vault (he also has the 16-year-old world record with 5.56m).
With such versatility, it’s hard not to see him in combined events, such as the decathlon, alongside the French world record holder and Olympic vice-champion Kévin Mayer. Everyone would like it… except Sasha Zhoya doesn’t want to hear about it.
“I don’t have a preference between sprint, hurdles and pole vault, but not the decathlon! I did only one (7,271 points in January 2019) and when I woke up the morning of the second day, that I realized that I still had five tests to do including a 1,500m while I was already kaputt, I understood. Upon arrival, I said: “I started my career as a decathlete yesterday and I finished it today! “, he told The team in 2019, without departing from his humor.
He already benefits from valuable advice from Renaud Lavillenie, his club partner, and Ladji Doucouré, 110m hurdles world champion in 2005 in Helsinki.
His first Games in three years?
After his remarkable performance at the World Juniors in Athletics on Saturday August 20, where he has just been crowned junior world champion in the 110 m hurdles, in 12”72, breaking his own world record set the day before in the semi-finals ( 12”93), impossible not to see in him the future of French athletics.
A great time, which would have (with a lot of conditional) earned him a medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Indeed, it is the Jamaican Hansle Parchment (13”4) who won the hurdles event in Japan. Notable difference: hurdles for juniors are lower than for seniors (0.99 m, against 1.06 m). But still.
In Tokyo this summer, the Blues did nothing. Only one medal reported – Kévin Mayer’s money in the decathlon – while there were possibilities: Mélina Robert-Michon on record, eliminated in qualifying; Quentin Bigot, 5th at the hammer; Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Aurel Manga in the 110m hurdles, 5th and 8th in the final; or Renaud Lavillenie, diminished by ankle injuries, who finished far from the podium.
Sasha Zhoya, who did not qualify for the event, appears to be the best promise for French athletics for the next Games. In Paris, in 2024, he will only be 22 years old. And he already has everything to be part of the greatest.
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