00:00It looked like France might actually win a medal, but as their final runner received the baton,
00:05she was trapped behind the other passing runners. She pushed around them as fast as she could,
00:10but she fell woefully far behind the leading pack, and it seemed unlikely that they would
00:15have any chance to redeem themselves. As the race began, France was off to a solid start,
00:20staying in the centre of the pack and keeping up with the favourites. As the baton reached
00:24their second runner, Muriel Hurtis, she managed to claw the French team up to third place,
00:28sitting right on the tail of Russia and Ukraine. She even pushed her way into second for a brief
00:34moment until the Great Britain runner came storming into the lead. As the third runner, Agnes Raharelai
00:39took the baton, she battled for third place with the Ukrainian runner, but she couldn't keep up,
00:44and she fell back to fourth. It still wasn't over for France, there was still about 500 metres left
00:49of the race. Agnes was holding strong, and she kept up with the pace of the favourites. However,
00:54as Floria Guay received the baton and tried to head into the inside lane, she found herself
00:59dodging the other team's third runners, leaving her well behind the favourites. On paper,
01:04with a trailing gap this large, she didn't even have the ability to be in contention for a medal.
01:09Even if she matched her previous personal best, that still wouldn't be enough. The French
01:15commentators lost hope. The British commentator was also dismissive of Floria's chances of winning.
01:28Floria wide, looking a little bit tired at the moment, looking as though France are now out of
01:32the battle for the medals. That was until the runners came up to the final turn, and what Floria
01:38would later describe in interviews as an animalistic urge overcame her, and she began
01:43hunting down the leading pack. The gap slowly began to close, and as Floria's home country
01:49watched on, a glimmer of hope started to appear. Floria caught up to Russia. It was neck and neck
01:57between her and Great Britain, and then... As Floria reached the finish line, she leaned forward as far
02:05as she could, but after she crossed the line, she snapped out of her deep, concentrative trance.
02:13Seemingly stunned and unaware of what just happened, Floria looked at her teammates,
02:18and they reaffirmed what she was having a hard time believing. Floria had not only run the fastest
02:24time of the day, she'd beaten her own personal best by nearly two whole seconds, and France won the gold
02:31medal.
