Paris (AFP)

An Olympic qualification without a continental podium: the French riders, team Olympic champions in Rio in 2016, assured the essential Friday at the European Championships, winning one of the three tickets in play for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, thanks to their fourth place.

Second after the hunt Wednesday behind Germany, the "Blue Jackets" fell Thursday in 4th place after the first pass, and did not completely catch up on Britain Friday in the second pass, insufficient to mount on the podium.

The title came back to Belgium (12.07), who won gold for the first time in their team history, ahead of Germany (16.22) and Great Britain (21.41).

With a total of 24.39 points, the Blues fail within three points of the British. Raging knowing that a fallen bar costs four points, but the essential was elsewhere.

"Tonight, we have a feeling of great relief, this pressure for the ticket to Tokyo is raised, now we can really turn our heads and eyes to Tokyo, it's a very good thing," recognizes AFP Thierry Pomel, the new national coach, in place at the head of the Blues for nine months.

"It's a great performance for the riders, and at the end it's only a fourth place, but it's a very, very good fourth place." strong teams: Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, of course the Belgians, "he adds.

- Three qualified for the individual final -

"We got there with a lot of pressure, the last two championships were not satisfying on the results," said Thierry Pomel, with a seventh place finish at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2017 and a ninth place at the World Equestrian Games. in 2018 in Tyron (North Carolina).

The post Rio-2016 has been difficult to manage with retired horses. Of the four horses entered, three contested their first major championship: Cavelo 2, ridden since March by Kevin Staut, Urvoso du Roch for Nicolas Delmotte and Lanlore Vancouver for Penelope Leprevost.

"They are training for the future and it's a very good omen, in training for Tokyo, but also for further, because they are still young horses, which can still be there in four years, but now we think of Tokyo, "said the national coach.

This week in Rotterdam, only two of the four riders (Leprevost and Staut) on the track were from the golden adventure in Rio three years ago.

Qualification for Japan in hand, the Blue Jackets will now be able to prepare for Tokyo, where the podium will be the goal, with a first appointment from 3 to 6 October, with the final of the Nations Cup in Barcelona ( Spain).

Before that, there will be on Sunday the individual final in Rotterdam for Leprevost (16th, 9.63 points), Delmotte (18th, 10.36) and especially Deroubaix, 6th with 5.40 points before the last two laps (13.00 and 15.30), in contact for the podium, despite a bar fell in his passage Friday.

"We have three riders qualified for the final, and when we look at the points, there can still be many things, we know that there are always reversals of situation," concludes the national coach.

© 2019 AFP