The French men's 4x400m relay team came second behind the United States on Sunday night to win the country's first medal at the 2023 athletics world championships in Budapest.
Ludy Vaillant, Gilles Biron, David Sombe and Téo Andant finished in a national record of 2:58.45 seconds to claim silver. Britain was third.
Less than a year before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, the performance of French athletes had raised eyebrows. Concerns over the abilities of the team are unlikely to disappear on the basis of one result.
Next week, supremos of the French athletics federation will meet the sports minister Amélie Castéra-Oudéa to discuss the debacle at the world championships.
In the last event of the championships, the women's 4x400m relay, Femke Bol produced a storming anchor leg to claim gold for the Netherlands.
On the first night of the championhsips, as she was battling for gold with the American Alexis Holmes, she tripped and dropped the baton just metres from the line.
Eight days later she maintained her poise to hunt down Stacey Ann Williams from Jamaica and snatch victory. It was the 23-year-old's second gold of the meeting. Britain got the bronze.
"We knew that every hundredth of a second would count so we had to do good baton changes and we did it," said Bol. "It's so amazing that we could all perform so well."
Success
Jakob Ingebrigsten retained his 5000m title. The 22-year-old Norwegian, who was pipped to the gold medal in the 1500m on Wednesday night, chased down the Spaniard Mohamed Katir in the back straight to win in 13:11.40 seconds. Jakob Krop - the silver medalist in Eugene last year - took the bronze.
"It's a step down from last year," the 22-year-old Kenyan conceded. "But it's a medal and I must be grateful."
The women's high jump went down to a three-way play between the Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh and the Australian pair Eleanor Patterson, the defending champion, and Nicola Olyslagers.
The Ukrainian, who won silver in Eugene, emerged triumphant with a jump of 2.01.
In the other final in the field, Neeraj Chopra added the world crown to his gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 25-year-old Indian took control of the final with his second throw of 88.17m. Arshad Nadim from Pakistan won the silver courtesy of his third throw of 87.82m and Jakub Vadlejch from the Czech Republic was third.
Change
Elsewhere on the track, Mary Moraa took the women's 800m. The 23-year-old Kenyan surged in front of the defending champion Athing Mu in the final 50 metres and held off the Briton Keely Hodgkinson to beat her to the gold in 1:56.03 seconds. "I'm happy to be consistently up there with the best athletes in the world," said Hodgkinson. "One of these years I'll come out on top."
Winfred Mutile Yavi won the 3000m steeplechase in 8:54.29 seconds. The 23-year-old from Bahrain took the lead just before the bell for the final lap and sped away from the field. Beatrice Chepkoech from Kenya finished three seconds behind her and another Kenyan, Faith Cherotich, was third.
At the end of the nine days of competition, Hungarian athletes handed over the World Athletics' flag to athletes from Japan which will host the next edition in Tokyo in 2025.
