Paris (AFP)

Twelve years after the last European title of Laura Flessel, Coraline Vitalis has taken over from the "Wasp" with the sword, by winning gold at the European Championships in Dusseldorf (Germany), in an unrivaled final 100% against Marie-Florence Candassamy, Wednesday.

For his first medal in the big league, Vitalis has won the most beautiful metal, while Candassamy, unfortunate finalist in Strasbourg at the European Championships in 2014, must again be content with money.

Two French women in the final of a big championship in fencing, it does not happen very often. At the sword, Laura Flessel and Valérie Barlois competed for the first Olympic title in 1996 in Atlanta. But at the continental level, it never happened.

"The French-French matches are always very difficult, and after that, my day started so bad that I really wanted to finish it," Vitalis told AFP after his coronation.

It is true that the Guadeloupian 24 years almost did not see the final table. In pools, she took only 63rd place, while only 64 girls qualify for the 32nd finals.

"I thought I did not have a choice, anyway, I was lucky to pass, and I did not have the right to miss this chance, and not to put myself to the bottom" she said.

Subsequently, "Kako", his nickname in the French team, was imperial against the Rumanian Ana Maria Popescu, Olympic vice-champion of Beijing-2008, and the Ukrainian Yana Shemyakina, Olympic champion of London-2012.

- Five medals in three days -

In the European ranking, she succeeds French side to Laura Flessel, her model when she was small in Pointe-à-Pitre, as it was the case for many fencers Guadeloupe, fed the exploits of the Wasp.

Vitalis had already played two finals in his career, a Grand Prix lost in Rio in May 2015 and a World Cup won in January 2018 in Havana. But never in a big league.

"It's true that there is a little more pressure and stress," she said, adding however that "the game is a little more in place and that we feel a little more keys It's harder to actually touch us. "

The French fencing displays at the end of the individual events a nice balance of five medals: the gold of Vitalis, the money of Candassamy and the saber Manon Brunet and the bronze of the florists Ysaora Tibus and Enzo Lefort.

And the saber Bolade Apithy came close to bring a sixth charm to the tricolor camp, beaten to the sudden death by the German Max Hartung (15-14) in the quarter-finals.

Halfway through, the French fencers are doing almost as well as the totality of the previous edition in 2018 in Novi Sad (Serbia), and the six podiums (2 medals of each metal).

The six collective events will start on Thursday (men's saber and men's foil) and will be crucial for the qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

? 2019 AFP