Three former Vandals took home national titles this weekend in Europe at the French and Danish national championships.
Driss Yousfi took home France's 800m men's title, Anders Møller won the Danish triple jump title and Joachim Olsen took Denmark's shot put and discus titles.
Yousfi, who earned a pair of WAC titles and helped the men's distance medley relay win another in 2006, came back to win the championship competition after nearly missing out on qualifying for the final.
Yousfi ran a 1:50.50 in the preliminary round, barely beating out the next competitor's 1:50.52 for the final spot in the championship round, where he ran a 1:50.60 to win the event by half a second.
Yousfi earned WAC titles in both the indoor and outdoor 800m in 2006 and ran the final leg of the men's distance medley relay at the 2006 WAC Indoor Championships. He was a 2006 NCAA qualifier in the indoor 800m, finishing 14th.
Olsen was a seven-time All-American at Idaho from 1999-2002, never finishing worse than third in five NCAA shot put competitions and finishing sixth twice in the discus. Olsen won the 2000 NCAA title in the shot put.
Unlike Yousfi, Olsen came into his competition as the clear favorite and dominated accordingly, winning the meet with a throw of 67-9½, five feet further than second place. Olsen is the third-ranked shot putter in the world.
Olsen dominated the men's discus as well, needing just one throw to secure the title. Olsen threw 180-0 on his first try of the day to win the event by more than 12 feet.
Møller was a competitor at Idaho in 2000, leaving the school with the 10th-best long jump and 11th-best triple jump in school history. Since leaving Idaho, Møller has gone on to set the Danish national records in both the indoor and outdoor triple jumps.
Møller won the men's triple jump in the same style as Olsen ? convincingly. A two-and-a-half-foot gap separated Møller's winning leap of 53-7 from second place.
Benjamin Mimoun, another former Vandal runner competing at the French championships, made the semifinals in the men's 200m dash and finished 13th overall. Mimoun ran a 21.73 in the preliminary round, then a 21.92 in the semifinal.
Mimoun was a three-time first team all-WAC competitor for the Vandals, earning third place finishes in both the indoor and outdoor 200m and the outdoor 100m in 2007.
