A few days before his 31st birthday (March 25), Mickael Hanany has offered to himself a nice gift. The French athlete has broken France’s high jump record outdoor.

The Frenchman surpassed the 2.34 m Saturday at the meeting in El Paso (Texas). He improves with one centimeter the previous mark of reference established July 10, 1994 by Jean-Charles Gicquel (2.33 m).

Gicquel is still the French absolute record holder with a jump of 2.35 m indoor conducted in March 1994 in Paris-Bercy.

Hanany whose best jump before Saturday was 2.32 m in 2010 said he has been eyeing the national record since last year.
“I was ready for this record; I had tried three or four times last season,” he told AFP

“I trained six months” to achieve this goal.