Ronald Pognon (born 16 November 1982) is a French sprint athlete. He originally specialized in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

, but later shifted to the shorter sprint distances. He was formerly the European record holder for the

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At indoor events, the 60 metres is run on lanes set out in the mi ...

indoors and is the first Frenchman to go under 10 seconds at the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

Early career

As a junior athlete he participated at the 2000 World Junior Championships, winning a silver medal in the

4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...

. He also competed individually in the

, without reaching the final. His personal best 200 m result at that time was 21.25 seconds, whereas his personal best 100 m result was 10.50 seconds. Two years later he had improved to 20.65 and 10.24 seconds respectively, and reached the 200 m semifinals at the 2002 European Championships. At the 2002 European Championships he also finished fourth in 4 × 100 m relay with teammates David Patros, Issa-Aimé Nthépé and Jérôme Éyana. He then shifted focus to the 100 metres. He reached the semifinals in this event at both the 2003 World Championships and the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. At the Olympics he also competed in the

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

, but failed to reach the final with the French team. He lowered his personal best time to 10.13 seconds in 2003 and 10.11 in 2004, both times in the town

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect, Languedocian dialect of Occitan language, Occitan) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in the Occitania (adminis ...

Breakthrough

In 2005 he started the season by setting a French indoor record in the

, with 6.45 seconds on 2 March in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

. He won the silver medal in the same event at the 2005 European Indoor Championships. He competed at the 2005 World Championships in both

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

and

, but did not reach the final; however, in the 4 × 100 m relay he won a gold medal together with teammates

Ladji Doucouré Ladji Doucouré (born 28 March 1983) is a French track and field athlete. Biography Ladji Doucouré's father and mother were Malian and Senegalese respectively. Ladji Doucouré was a football player and decathlete before specializing in hurdli ...

, Eddy De Lépine and Lueyi Dovy. He rounded off the season by finishing fifth in the 2005 World Athletics Final. He also set personal best times in both 100 and 200 metres that season. 9.99 seconds in the Lausanne Super Grand Prix in July, and 20.27 seconds in the

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

Grand Prix in August. He became the first Frenchman to go under 10 seconds, and only four Europeans had run faster: Francis Obikwelu (9.86),

Linford Christie Linford Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former Sprint (running), sprinter and athletics coach. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes ...

(9.87),

Dwain Chambers Dwain Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978) is a British track and field, track Sprint (running), sprinter. He has won international medals at World and European levels and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of athletics (spo ...

(9.97) and

Jason Gardener Jason Carl Gardener, (born 18 September 1975) is a retired British sprint athlete. A fast starter from the blocks, he won an Olympic gold medal leading off Great Britain in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2004 Olympic Games, and is also the ...

(9.98). In 2006 he finished sixth at the 2006 World Indoor Championships, fourth at the 2006 European Championships and sixth at the

2006 World Athletics Final The 4th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart, Germany on September 9 and September 10, 2006. Results Men Women References External linksOfficial 4th IAAF World Athletics Final Site
{{DEFAU ...

, the latter in a season's best time of 10.10 seconds. At the European Championships he helped win a bronze medal in the relay, behind Great Britain and Poland, together with an entirely new team: Oudéré Kankarafou, Pognon, Fabrice Calligny and David Alerte. At the end of the season, Pognon was selected for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

, finishing fifth in the 100 metres.

Later career

The 2007 season saw Pognon win a bronze medal in 60 metres at the 2007 European Indoor Championships. He had run the 60 metres in 6.55 seconds, better than the year before. However, during the outdoor season he did not compete. He returned to competition in 2008, running only 6.68 in the 60 m indoors but managing 10.13 seconds in July in Rethimno to qualify for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. Competing in the 100 metres event, he placed third in his heat behind Tyrone Edgar and Darvis Patton in a time of 10.26 seconds. He qualified for the second round in which he improved his time to 10.21 seconds; however, he was unable to qualify for the semifinals as he finished in fourth place. He did not participate in the 4 × 100 m relay, although France did field a team. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he was part of the French 4 × 100 m relay team that went on to finish 3rd in the final, winning the bronze medal.

Statistics

:''As of 2 April 2014''

Personal bests

*All information from IAAF Profile

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pognon, Ronald 1982 births Living people People from Le Lamentin French male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for France Olympic bronze medalists for France Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Martiniquais athletes French people of Martiniquais descent World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships winners French Athletics Championships winners 21st-century French sportsmen