Athletics champion Bosse 'much better' after attack

World 800 metres champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse said Saturday he was "much better" after a vicious assault that left him with "multiple facial fractures" although he had still not resumed training.

Bosse, 25, was victim of a late night attack in a casino car park in his one-time training base of Gujan-Mestras in southwestern France.

French police have since arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with the assault, which forced Bosse to put an early end to his season.

"I'm much better. I wasn't like that two weeks ago. Things, on the surface, have quite quickly subsided because the human body, when you're fit, works hard," Bosse said at a press conference at the DecaNation athletics event in the western city of Angers, which he is attending as a spectator.

"The DecaNation is an event I could be doing. What's frustrating is to come here out of form. There were meetings in which I was due to take part."

Bosse added: "My attackers? I knew one of them. It's not a personal history, it's more the fact that there are dangerous people who have to understand that they're dangerous.

"They hit my head. They put my life as an athlete in danger. I am a non-violent person.

"There are lots of people who've supported me. What's really marked me is the people who have gone through things much more traumatic than me and who tell me things they don't even tell their shrinks."

Bosse, who produced a stunning burst with 150m to go to give France their first-ever gold in the 800m at last month's world championships in London, refused to put a date on when he might start training again, all the while confirming that he would again spend the coming winter in Australia, as he did last year.

"At the moment, I tire quickly. I have no spark, I have no desire to do any sport," he said, adding: "I haven't even picked up my gold medal."

Source: AFP