Paris (AFP)

Half full glass, half empty glass: arriving at the World Championships in Ottensheim / Linz full of doubts, the French team returns from Austria with four Olympic quotas, but without a medal in the suitcases, a first since 2002 .

In the pre-Olympic years, the competition is still growing more than an Olympiad, especially since the Worlds of these seasons are used to distribute nearly 60% of the places available for the Olympic Games of the following year.

The start of the 2019 season was complicated for the French rowers, letting fear the worst on the banks of the Danube, but they raised their heads a little.

"We have some reasons for satisfaction, we had a difficult season this year, with results that were not up to par, we came back in the game for a certain number of boats," said AFP. National Technical Director Patrick Ranvier, believing that the energy spent on reaching this first goal has failed to fight for the podiums.

In the industrial heart of Austria, the Blues of rowing were able to measure the work they still have to accomplish by the Olympics 2020, they have always brought back at least a medal of the Games since 1996 , and as the Paris Games in 2024 approach.

The women's pair of lightweight ladies is definitely on the shelves of the good news, with the beautiful fifth place of Laura Tarantola and Claire Bové, in contact for the podium for much of the 2000 meters of the final A.

"They make their final with ambition, it lacks a little gasoline.You know their capabilities," said Patrick Ranvier, referring to "legitimate ambitions" in a year.

- Houin / Beurey far from the account -

In the best French boat, Claire Bové and Laura Tarantola (who had made the world champion in lightweight skiffs - not Olympic-last year) have the weapons, with a perfectible final packaging, to get the podium at the Games in a year.

More in trouble this season, Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino and Hélène Lefebvre, in pairs, as well as the brothers Valentin and Théophile Onfroy in two coxless, reached the final A, finishing in 6th place.

Both boats have validated the ticket for Tokyo-2020 and will be able to prepare the Olympic year more serenely. The men's pair with Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron, the reigning world champion but diminished, also secured the qualification for Tokyo with his 9th place.

"We could not have put more, we went to the end of ourselves," commented Boucheron, sick since the beginning of the week, after the race.

On the other hand, the pair of men's lightweight men, in gold in Rio in 2016 but reworked since then, was the big disappointment of the week on the French side. Pierre Houin, Olympic champion 2016 and the world in 2017 with Jérémie Azou, is still looking for the right combination since the retirement of his former partner at the end of 2017.

Associated recently with Hugo Beurey, the two rowers could only take the 16th place, far from the seven places at stake for Tokyo.

The boats dumped at Linz will have one last chance to qualify for Tokyo, at the final race in Lucerne from 17 to 19 May 2020.

In para-rowing, the Blues leave with two medals in the four boats on the Tokyo program: silver for Nathalie Benoit in skiff and bronze for Perle Bouge and Christophe Lavigne in two pairs.

© 2019 AFP