Sprinter Vicaut Leaves Reider Training Camp For Italy

Former joint European 100m record holder Jimmy Vicaut said Monday he was leaving controversial coach Rana Reider's training group in the United States to join up with Marco Airale in Italy

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Dec, 2021 ) :Former joint European 100m record holder Jimmy Vicaut said Monday he was leaving controversial coach Rana Reider's training group in the United States to join up with Marco Airale in Italy.

Reider is facing a probe by the US Center for SafeSport over multiple complaints of sexual misconduct.

"After a complicated and disappointing season, a few weeks ago, I decided to return to Europe," Vicaut said on social media.

He will join the Padua set-up run by 31-year-old Airale, a former assistant to Reider.

"Beside my performances, my choice has been driven by the absence of my family, which weighed on me daily.

"Three years out from the Olympic Games in Paris, it was also time for me to review my work and change my team." The 29-year-old French sprinter, who has had an injury-hit career, was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100m at this year's Covid-delayed Tokyo Games.

He has not broken the 10-second barrier since 2018, and his European joint best of 9.86sec set in 2015 was broken by shock Tokyo 100m gold medallist Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy, who ran 9.84, followed by 9.80 in the final.

Vicaut has trained for the last two years in Florida with Reider, whose group of athletes includes Canada's Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse and Britain's Adam Gemili, a former European 200m champion and multiple relay medal winner.

Gemili and fellow British sprinter Laviai Nielsen were last week stripped of funding by UK Athletics after deciding to stay with Reider.

A third British athlete, Daryll Neita, who won a bronze medal in the women's 4x100m relay in Tokyo, decided to cut links with the American coach.