Tokyo (AFP)

Sabreuse Manon Brunet erased Monday in Chiba the disappointment of her fourth place in Rio-2016 by winning the bronze medal, the second in Tokyo for the tricolor fencing selection after that in gold of the swordsman Romain Cannone on Sunday.

Unhappy five years ago, the 25-year-old sabreuse, with long hair and light eyes, confided to AFP in mid-June that since then she had "grown: I have become more mature but also more demanding with myself , I always want more ".

"I understand my sport better, I am more in the analysis, I know more where I want to go and I manage to be in the present moment to spread myself less," she assured.

Once recovered from her Brazilian disappointment, the young woman, registered with the Orleans club, has indeed settled down among the best sabers in the world, to rank 3rd in the world: vice-champion of Europe in 2019, this Maréchale des Logis in the gendarmerie is also military world champion in 2017 and 2019.

In an interview with the newspaper L'Équipe in 2019, Jean-Philippe Daurelle, the national coach of French swordsmen, whom she nicknamed "Doudou", said of her protege that she was "now much more emotionally stable: she does not let go not and, what is interesting, it still has great possibilities of progress ".

- A shy old woman -

Manon Brunet, however, began her Olympic preparation in the worst possible way.

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"I was injured in the summer of 2020, adductor tendonitis, and I had it for six months, so I could not start training until January of this year", confided- she to AFP.

In March, she participated in Budapest in her only competition for months - Covid obliges - and finished 9th: "it was a little disappointing, but I was able to gauge myself and I saved the furniture".

Since then, the young woman has trained a lot, accumulating internships alongside her teammates Charlotte Lembach, Sara Balzer and Cécilia Berder.

The young woman, in a relationship with the French swordsman Boladé Apithy, released on Saturday in the first round of her Olympic competition, began fencing "at the age of 7-8 years" in Rilleux-la-Pape, near Lyon , where she was born, her father having worked with the youth teams of Olympique Lyonnais.

"I liked the atmosphere at the club, the white outfit and the mask and as I was shy, it helped me", she told AFP again with a smile, adding to have also practiced dancing and taekwondo.

"At one point, it was fencing that won the day: I find that it is a very complete sport, one would not say but it is physical, both technical and tactical with, as in judo, a lot of respect towards the referee and his opponent ", explained the young woman.

Besides a medal, or even two in Tokyo, his objective is clear: "to have a baby after Paris-2024 and then to return to competition because it is vital to me".

- Lefort disappointed and frustrated -

With her teammates, exits Monday from the outset by tough opponents, she will indeed have the opportunity on Saturday to hang a new medal around her neck during the team competition.

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The foil boys did not shine either, their leader, Enzo Lefort, 2019 world champion and one of the greatest French medal chances in fencing, stopping in the quarter-finals, after elimination from the first round of Maxime Pauty and Julien Mertine.

After the initial defeat of Yannick Borel with the sword the day before, this premature departure from the Olympic tournament was a new disillusion for the French camp, mitigated by the gold "surprise" of Cannone.

© 2021 AFP