Stuttgart (Germany) (AFP)
The French gymnasts, led by Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos, took a giant step towards the 2020 Olympics in the World Championship qualifiers on Friday in Stuttgart (Germany).
On the eve of the second day of qualifying - which will be animated by the entry in the running of the American queen Simone Biles - the Blue, supplemented by Marine Boyer, Lorette Charpy, Aline Friess and Claire Pontlevoy, are in second position, behind the Chinese (169,161 points). Above all, they scored an excellent score of 166.713 points.
The top nine nations, excluding the United States, Russia and China, already qualified for their world medals won in the team competition in 2018, will get their ticket to Tokyo after qualifying on Saturday night.
In comparison, at the Mondials-2018, the French women had placed fifth in the final, with 161,294 points, and previously, sevenths of the qualifications (161,629).
"It's a big relief!" We made a good score, we really made the match almost perfect, says Véronique Legras-Snoeck, director of the high-level women, they impressed me, we can really count on them, it's a nice team. "
"There are always some mistakes to improve but it's true that it was almost perfect, we did a historic score, we never did, we get stronger and it's nice," says Boyer .
"It looks pretty good, I want to say," Charpy smiled, "we did small calculations, we found stuff around 165.5 But when I saw 166.7, I did I never hoped for that. "
"It's true that we were surprised at the end, but since we really did a great job, the result is there, I'm very proud," says DJDS.
In addition to the Olympic challenge, the top eight nations will qualify for the team final scheduled for Tuesday.
© 2019 AFP