Budapest (AFP)
A year from the Tokyo Olympics, France fencing hit hard at the World Championships in Budapest, with two titles and three silver medals, one of the best records of the last twenty years.
On the banks of the Danube, the 2019 Worlds ended with silver faces for the French, with two finals for the men's saber and foil, respectively lost to Russia (45-40) and the United States (45-40). -32).
An end without the most beautiful metal, but that really opens the appetite for the Tokyo Olympics, with a year of work in perspective on small details, to turn money into gold.
"They were stronger than us, they attacked us at the start and made us make mistakes, they force us to start strong and they stop us ... We have to be able to squeeze against teams like those" said the national coach Emeric Clos, pointing out that the record is not that bad, with the European title won a month earlier.
The same feeling of having fallen on the saber side. "Like any silver medal, it ends in a defeat, which is difficult to cash on at the moment.They especially impressed me a lot on the previous laps," notes Jean-Philippe Daurelle, national coach.
"We did not get as much as we could have hoped for, maybe the Russians were stronger than us, it still plays in the sport, and in fencing there is still a way to win. when one is less strong, which was probably the case today. "
- Present at the rendezvous -
Yes, there was Kazan (Russia) in 2014 with seven medals including three titles, or Leipzig (Germany) in 2017 with six podiums, but these editions did not have the qualifying value for the Olympic Games, with the density and the pressure that implies.
And for this edition magyare qualifying for Japan, France has responded present, haunting the thrill of five planetary finals, which has not happened since the World-2007 in St. Petersburg (six finals, four titles), to occupy finally 2nd place in the medals table behind Russia.
These results confirm the resettlement of the Blues in the world top of the discipline, after the years of depression at the turn of the 2010s, and the traumatic zero point of the 2012 Olympics in London.
A confirmation that came first from the foil: the silver medal of the surprising Pauline Ranvier in foil and her generous fencing ideally launched the Hungarian campaign on Friday.
The foil returned from the European Championships in Dusseldorf (Germany) a month ago with four gold medals per team in men, silver in women's teams and bronze for Enzo Lefort and Ysaora Thibus- and leaves Budapest with three new charms -Lefort in gold, a first in this weapon since 1990 and Philippe Omnès, the money of Ranvier and gentlemen in teams.
- The answer of the sword -
France's traditionally strongest weapon, the men's sword put the emotion, and added the way, in its worldwide coronation Monday night, to bring the best of the answers in the face of results at half-mast these days.
The women's saber has confirmed its installation alongside Russia as the best nation of the weapon, one year after the title of Wuxi (China).
These four men's sword weapons, men's and women's foil, and ladies' saber, have the royal route to see Japan in the summer of 2020, as the points accumulated in Budapest count double in the race for the Olympic team ticket, which qualifies automatically three shooters for individual events.
Out in the round of 16 by teams, the girls of the sword and the saber find themselves on the other hand in difficulty and forced to perform (podium or victory) in the last four qualifying events in the winter of 2019/20.
© 2019 AFP