Paris (AFP)

The French Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron, world champions last year of the pair, took the 9th place of the World Rowing Championships Sunday in Linz, enough to qualify the boat for the Tokyo Olympics. next year.

The French duo had to finish in one of the first five places (out of six) in the B final of the Worlds, since the first eleven boats of this category on the banks of the Danube validated their ticket to Tokyo in mid-July 2020.

France therefore directly validates four boats - the two pairs of light ladies, the two without helmsman, the two women's couple (in the competition in final A in the early afternoon) and the two men's couple- for the Olympics -2020.

In comparison, during the World-2015 qualifiers for Rio-2016, six boats had won the precious sesame at home in Aiguebelette.

The big disappointment came from the two men's lightweight couple, Olympic champion in Rio-2016 with Pierre Houin and Jérémie Azou. Houin, associated with Hugo Beurey in Austria, took only 16th place, while only the first seven validated their place in Japan.

The men's lightweight two, as well as the other failed boats, will have one last chance to qualify for the Games, during the final race in Lucerne from 17 to 19 May 2020.

© 2019 AFP