France has a major flaw before the European Championships – it forgot to record the favorite medal – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

Azzedine Habez won the Diamond League title in Marrakesh less than two weeks ago, and finished third during the Bislett Games on Thursday evening.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot were the only ones who were best in the 1500 metres.

The 30-year-old is the second fastest European in 2024 with a time of 3:30.80 and owns a personal best of 3:29.26 – set in Oslo a year ago.

“Administrative error”

NRK expert Vibjörn Rodale believes he will be a clear medal candidate, especially without Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr starting.

– Without the Brit at the start, I would make him a favorite for the silver medal, behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

The problem is that France simply forgot about Habez.

“Due to an administrative error, the withdrawal of athletes Azzedine Habez and Simone Bedard (10,000m) from the European Athletics Federation has not been approved at this time. The French Athletics Federation is working hard to allow them to compete.”

– Do you need a secretary?, answered the U-20 world champion in the 110-meter hurdles, Sasha Chuya.

They only filled two of the three places available to them. Romain Mornet and Mile Goyet, both athletes who set personal bests of 3.34 seconds, were disqualified.

Agent: We will wait for comment

The registration deadline ended May 30 at 2 p.m. In the European Athletics Regulations, the following is stated under point 103.11:

“No other athletes will be approved after the registration deadline.”

NRK has been in contact with Habz's agent, Michel Boetting, who described the matter as very unfortunate. He says the fault lies with the union.

– Ezz El-Din will wait to say anything until the situation becomes clear. That should be done within a day or two, Botting wrote in an email.

Nordås with clear speech

-If I were him, I would be surprised and disappointed by my own association, and perhaps a little cursed. He is of course a medal candidate, but the offer at the top is so large that it is still difficult to get a medal, Narvi Gilgi Nordas wrote to NRK in a text message.

– That must be frustrating. If this cannot be fixed, one has only to give up and be sorry. If that had happened to me, I probably would have sent an invoice to the union. I hope they clarify this and he shares. “They can't be on the same page about this, it would be so stupid,” Rodale says.

NRK contacted the French Athletics Federation and the European Athletics Federation, but they did not respond to our inquiries.

Except for registered athletes

France also registered athletes, but later refrained from taking them out. It has consequences for athletes in other countries.

Superstar Femke Bol's coach, Laurent Meuwly, sarcastically refers to her as “gorgeous” on X/Twitter.

“We selected everyone who was within our criteria, so there were no Norwegians who would join regardless,” says Erlend Slokvik, head of sport at the Norwegian Athletics Federation.

This is not the first time that countries have signed athletes who have not since been included in the European Championship squad. The number of credits for support equipment and assemblies is determined based on the number of athletes. It's a possible reason why countries enter athletes they don't go to tournaments with.

note! The European Commission meetings begin in Rome on Friday, June 7 and continue until June 12. The tournament is broadcast on NRK.