Tokyo (AFP)

The fireworks have fallen, the medal medal can begin: the day after the opening ceremony, the first 11 titles of the Tokyo Olympic Games will be awarded on Saturday.

A priori, it will be on the shooting range that the first gold medal will be awarded.

Only one certainty, it will be awarded to a woman, sacred to 10 m rifle shooting.

For the French, Océanne Muller, 18, is showing and could win the first medal of the tricolor clan, she who took 5th place in qualifying.

Also on the program this Saturday, sports that make the salt of the Olympic Games: archery, judo, fencing and weightlifting.

But also something new, karate, and a first big meeting, with the road cycling road race.

As soon as the Tour de France is finished on the Champs Elysées, all eyes will be on the Slovenian Tadej Pocagar, double winner of the Grande Boucle at just 22 years old.

The 234 km course, near Mount Fuji, looks like a big and beautiful mountain stage on the Tour, with in particular five climbs on the program, 4,800 m of elevation gain, in a hot and humid climate.

The justice of the peace will be the Mikuni pass (10 km at 10.6% average with passages at 20%), the penultimate difficulty of the day.

The last crossing, at the Kagosaka pass, is 18 km from the finish, judged at the Fuji International Speedway, once used by F1.

Besides Pogacar and his compatriot Primoz Roglic, the favorites are Belgians (Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel) and the French are outsiders (David Gaudu).

Arrival should take place around 4:30 p.m. local (9:30 a.m. French, 7:30 a.m. GMT).

# photo1

The day will also be marked by the first fights in judo, in his native country, a highlight of the Olympics.

It is here, in Tokyo in 1964, during the first Tokyo Olympics, in this same mythical hall of the Nippon Budokan, that this martial art made its Olympic debut, quite a symbol.

On the French side, in the -48 kg category, Shirine Boukli will try to start the movement, she who tumbled last year at the highest level.

She is one of those athletes who would not have been in Tokyo last year, and who have benefited from the postponement of a year to invite themselves.

For the men, Luka Mkheidze will be the French representative in the -60 kg category.

In archery, Lisa Barbelin and Jean-Charles Valladont are engaged in mixed doubles, and have perhaps the best chances of reaching a podium on Saturday.

But fencing, the main provider of medals for France in the history of the Olympic Games (almost a third of the medals in total), is also on the bill, with the women's individual épée (Coraline Vitalis, eliminated in the first round) and the men's saber with Boladé Apithy.

So, for whom will the first French medal of the Tokyo Games be?

© 2021 AFP