Enzo Lefort, Erwann Le Pechoux, Maxime Pauty and Julien Mertine were crowned European team champions on Thursday in Düsseldorf, bringing the French clan their seventh medal since the start of the competition.
Second gold medal for the tri-color clan
The French beat the German hosts (45-26) in the final, having corrected the defending Russian Olympic champions in the semi-finals (45-29). They achieved an excellent operation in the race to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The last team gold medal for French foilists was in 2017, when Jérémy Cadot was on the team at the Place de Pauty, who celebrates his first big league gold, the day of his 26th birthday.
This is the second continental title won by French fencers in Germany after gold Coraline Vitalis Wednesday at the sword. In total, in addition to these two European titles, the Blues won two silver medals (Marie-Florence Candassamy on the sword and Manon Brunet on the saber) and three bronze (Lefort, team sabers and Ysaora Thibus in foil).
The results of these European championships, one year of the 2020 Olympics and in the qualifying phase for Tokyo, are already better than the previous edition in Novi Sad last year (six medals, two of each metal). There are two days of team competition, with the ladies 'and gentlemen's foil on Friday, and the ladies' sword and men's saber on Saturday.