Paris (AFP)
Charline Picon, Olympic champion in 2016, won the gold medal of the Euro-2020 windsurfing (RS: X), Saturday in Vilamoura (Portugal), a strong signal sent to her opponents within a year of the Tokyo Games.
"It feels good! This morning (Saturday), I put a lot of pressure on myself to finish the job even though I had a super good week (in qualifying)," Picon told AFP shortly after his victory for his first competition since the end of February.
"To find myself in this leadership position that I had in 2014, to have this ascendancy over others, it's important," continued the champion, leading all week in Vilamoura.
The 35-year-old Rochelaise was keen to "regain her N.1 place", after finishing second in the last two Worlds (2020 and 2018).
On Saturday, in the south of Portugal, she won in front of her rivals for the Olympic Games, the Israeli Katy Spychakov, the Polish Zofia Noceti-Klepacka and the Briton Emma Wilson (fourth).
"It was my little challenge, to train without really knowing what the others were doing (due to the confinement). The hidden goal was to see if I had managed to take advantage of this period."
The Frenchwoman does not intend to "fall asleep" after this title.
She will participate in several courses - including one at the national cross-country ski center in Prémanon (Jura) - and train with three young windsurfers.
She will be back in competition next March for the European Championship again, still in Vilamoura.
On the boy's side, Thomas Goyard, world bronze medalist in 2020 and qualified for the Olympics, finished 7th in the Euro, won by the Israeli Yoav Cohen, ahead of his compatriot Shahar Zubari and the Dutch Kiran Badloe.
© 2020 AFP