Adèle Gay, the hopeful who brought down Agathe Guillemot in the 1,500m at the French Championships

It's an outcome we didn't see coming. While Gabriel Tual had already been dethroned in the 800m , another national middle-distance champion was stripped of her property. But, while Tual had to manage a somewhat disrupted preparation and fierce density, Agathe Guillemot seemed to have all the cards this Saturday in Talence to string together a third national title in the 1,500m outdoors, as the Breton has dominated France for three seasons. But that was without counting on the passion and dreams of a young 20-year-old athlete.

For athletics fans, especially middle-distance runners, Adèle Gay is no stranger. Selected several times for the French youth team, she had just won the silver medal at the European Under-21 Championships in Bergen (Norway) before arriving in Talence as someone with nothing to lose. And that was a good thing because she had a tough opponent in Agathe Guillemot, who needed a challenge a little tougher than just waiting and winning. The Breton woman has her sights set on the big picture and wanted to use this race to take risks by going strong, without control, and see how far she would go.

Obviously, given her personal best - which is also the French record (3'56''69) - she still thought she was safe with a suicide run, the followers having to drop off at some point. But Gay's record of 4'07''00 was misleading. Crossed in the afternoon in the stands of a packed and joyful Thouars stadium, her coach in Amiens, Pascal Machat, had let us know that his runner was worth more. She demonstrated this a few minutes later by hanging on to Guillemot's powerful stride before attacking him at the start of the final straight to clinch her first national title in the big leagues (4'04''12 against 4'04''49).

The biggest improvement this year is her mental approach to competitions. She's not a natural-born killer. Now she's becoming a hired killer."

A blistering time, synonymous with a French U23 record (former record by Florence Giolitti in 4'05''78 in 1987) and above all a talent that is only confirmed. "She was trained in Val-de-Reuil (Eure) by the coach of Fanta Fofana (former youth international in the 800m), Jean-Claude Hurel ," explains Pascal Machat. "She arrived in the sports section (of the Hotoie high school in Amiens) four years ago. She is a talent. She lost a little time in the cadets but she is a kid who had done 2'56 in the minimes in the 1000m. She is extremely courageous, a cream to train."

In Amiens, the Normandy player found a group where things have been going well for several years, including the young international 800m athlete, Yanis Vanlanduyt. "I'm doing a degree in social sciences alongside sport," the new French champion explained after her race. "I'm running a dual project. I have a great training group in Amiens. I'm in my third year, which I'm doing in two years. It frees up time for me to double and increase the number of training sessions (9 per week) .

"She's 20 years old, that's young ," adds Machat, who already experienced the highest level 20 years ago when he helped Antoine Martiak, a former international in the 800m, to blossom. "She's extremely strong in the basics. At the threshold, she's at over 18.5 km/h. She can do 15x400m in 1'08 in VMA. She has great qualities. She needs to gain more strength. The biggest improvement this year is her mental approach to competitions. She wasn't a born killer. Today, she's becoming a hired killer. To win medals, you have to start by believing in yourself to increase the probability of doing so."

Exactly what she did this Saturday to eliminate a Guillemot who was nevertheless very strong in body and mind. "I train a lot on fast bases and I knew that I could do better than 4'07 ", said Gay. I needed the right race. Doing it shows that the training pays off." And above all, this title opens the doors to all her dreams. "Before, for those under 4' we had the impression that it was impossible but seeing the others do it (Agathe Guillemot, Sarah Madeleine), we tell ourselves that we are not so far away. We see among the hopefuls that the times are only going down. It pushes everyone upwards and I hope that it will also boost Agathe towards 3'55 or less."

Back in Font-Romeu this Sunday, Guillemot will need a few days to digest it, as she admitted after the race. But it's clear that this hitch won't be without a future, for the woman who has announced since the beginning of the season that she wants to compete with the best in the world. For Gay, too, there will be a before and after Talence. And it seems very likely that these two will cross paths regularly in the coming seasons.