Stéphan Buckland is in excellent shape for the beginning of this season. He achieved the third best world performance this year, with a time of 10?21 for the 100m race at the Skyline International Meet, held on Sunday at Maryse Justin Stadium in Réduit. He only needed nineteen hundredths of a second to be the fastest man in the world since Maurice Green holds the best international performance with 10?02.

But Stephan Buckland is satisfied: ?I?m getting back into shape and the feeling of being on the track is coming back too. It was a good race.? Surprisingly enough, he finished only eight hundredths of a second from his personal record in the 100m, although the conditions were difficult, with a disastrous 2,7 meters per second wind to face.

Stephan Buckland?s story began in 1992, with his participation in the intercollege championships. ?Some time later I joined the Curepipe athletics school.? He started his training sessions with Jacques Lebon and Maxime Aunet. ?That?s when I really learnt what athletics was about.? When he improved on the national 60m record with a 7?2 time, Jacques Dudal, the technical director of national athletics, took him under his wing. After years of hard training and sacrifice, he is ?proud? of what he has become and ?has no regrets about his career.?

Before the 8th Athletics championships in Edmonton, where he came out 6th in the 200m race finals, he joined the Dakar International Athletics Centre. However, he decided last year to come back to train in Mauritius because he felt he needed to be close to his people to be at his best. This decision was highly criticised by some people in athletics circles.

His level has indeed improved and he was even presented as co-favourite by the famous British bookmaker William Hill for the 200m finals in the World Athletics Championship last year in Paris. Coming out fifth in those finals was none the less one of his major achievements.

He is now training for the upcoming Olympics in Athens, where he will be competing against Kostadinos Kédéris, the present olympic champion who won the 200m in the 1996 and 2000 games. The latter is the best Greek athlete of the moment and running against him will be the biggest challenge of Stephan Buckland?s career.