Thibault Placzek: "Keep the speed up, for as long as possible!"
Thibault Placzek, an economics student at the University of Montpellier, won the title of French university 5000-meter champion last June.
Twenty of them represented the University of Montpellier's athletics team in Vineuil, at the French university championships held on June 1 and 2 in the pouring rain. " We set off with three mini-buses, and the atmosphere in the team was really great, as was that of the championships, even if the weather wasn't great," recalls Thibault Placzek. And indeed, it was in the rain that the 22-year-old crossed the 5000-meter finish line in first place, with a time quite close to his personal best. " I ran 14 minutes and 8 seconds, which is 18 seconds faster than the week before. That's a speed of 20 to 22 km/h!
In the Placzek family...
Another medal for the half-sinker, who is also Val d'Oise record-holder in the 10,000 metres with a time of 29'12. It has to be said that in the Val d'Oise, the Placzek family is well known for running like it breathes. First there's father Bruno, who was the first winner of the legendary Transbaie race in 1989, and sister Marion, with her five French championship titles. As for Thibault, he's been racing at club level since he was eight years old, and joined AC Soisy Andilly Margency in 2022, but the 5000 " is really what I started doing this year. Before that, I used to run shorter distances at a regional level ". With his father and sister, the young sportsman even had the pleasure of becoming vice world team champion in laser run, a discipline derived from modern pentathlon.
The economy in the race
And Thibault Placzek doesn't just strive for excellence on the track, as this finance enthusiast left the Paris region to study at Montpellier's Faculty of Economics. He is studying for his L3 without giving up his 8 or 10 training sessions a week. It's not always easy," he says, "you have to get organized, but my status as a top-level student athlete also enables me to adjust my timetable and my exams. His resilience is well proven in his discipline, which he sums up as the art of " keeping your speed up for as long as possible! " A motto that should help him achieve his next goal: a master's degree in accounting and audit control.