Tokyo (AFP)

With Ysaora Thibus and Enzo Lefort at foil, and Yannick Borel at epee, French fencing has fine blades in its ranks and can be ambitious at the Tokyo Games, where it hopes to match its performance in Rio and regain its luster. of yesteryear.

Five years ago in Rio, the French fencers had erased the painful fiasco of London-2012 (zero medals, a first since the failure of Rome in 1960) with the Olympic title of the team swordsmen, the silver of the gentlemen of the foil by teams and the bronze of Gauthier Grumier at the épée.

"The idea is to match Rio's performance," says AFP the brand new national technical director (DTN), Virginie Thobor, who came from wrestling and appointed at the end of April to the FFEscrime.

In view of the results between Rio and Tokyo (15 podiums, including five titles out of three Worlds), three medals seem to be a minimum, especially since there will be two more events in Japan.

Between 2016 and 2021, Ysaora Thibus and Pauline Ranvier took individual silver in foil (in 2018 for Thibus, in 2019 for Ranvier) and above all Yannick Borel became world epee champion in 2018 and Enzo Lefort world champion foil in 2019.

Coronations that give hope to see France finally experience the thrills of an individual Olympic title, which has eluded it since the triumph of foilist Brice Guyart in Athens in 2004, already ... 17 years ago!

- "Experienced" -

Foil, the most constant weapon in the past Olympiad, offers the most guarantees on the way to the podiums.

Both teams are qualified and are clearly aiming for a medal.

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"The team is experienced, with eleven athletes of which they are the second, even the third Olympic Games, who will therefore be able to manage the pressure and pass on their experience to the seven novices", adds the DTN, who arrived in June and for whom Tokyo will serve. of "reference" in terms of "work to be provided" for the Paris Games in 2024, under the dome of the Grand Palais.

However, a new deal has appeared in the equation for a year and a half: the Covid-19 pandemic which has brought all international fencing competitions to a halt and which is reviving the suspense in a discipline more uncertain than others. .

This can "lead to its share of surprises" because of the lack of benchmarks of its participants, believes Lionel Plumanail, in charge of high performance at the FFE.

- Without Jerent -

The men's epee, a traditionally strong weapon of French fencing and sacred by teams in each edition since 2004 (the team event was not on the program in London in 2012), has seen its status as a safe haven crumble. .

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Especially since Daniel Jérent, one of the spearheads of the team (2016 Olympic champion and 2014, 2017 and 2019 world champion), was removed from the list of selected mid-June, due to a summons to come before the French anti-doping following a positive test at the end of November 2019.

In saber, Boladé Apithy will be the only representative, the men's team having failed to qualify.

After this collective failure, the 35-year-old Guadeloupe decided to join the training group of Frenchman Christian Bauer, "the best in the world", "the best decision I have made in my life", he assures us. .

The sabers, on the other hand, have climbed on all the world team podiums, including gold in 2018 and silver in 2019. "The objective is to bring back two medals: we are four girls with very different styles, we are confident into each other and we know that we can do great things, "summarizes Manon Brunet, unfortunate fourth in individual in Rio and who has since settled among the best in the world.

© 2021 AFP