Tokyo (AFP)

Charline Picon, titled in 2016 in Rio and currently third in the standings, is guaranteed to win a medal on Saturday in windsurfing during the final regatta of the Tokyo Games, which reserves the same suspense as in Rio on the identity of the future Olympic champion.

On the men's side, still in RS: X windsurfing, Thomas Goyard can win him the silver or bronze medal on Saturday, while the Dutchman Kiran Badloe can no longer be joined in the lead.

On August 14, 2016, at the foot of Sugarloaf, six competitors stood in six points and could all claim the title.

Charline Picon, tied for 3rd, had finally won the last leg.

This time, there are only three left to sail for the most beautiful metal.

At the end of the three races played on Thursday in a wind of 12 to 15 knots on choppy water, Picon, who finished 3rd, 2nd and 6th, has 36 points, against 34 for Briton Emma Wilson and 30 for Chinese Lu Yinxiu , who leads the fleet.

It is the competitor with the fewest points that will be crowned, while the points are doubled in the final (2 in the 1st, 4 in the 2nd, etc.) and only the first ten in the standings contest this "medal race. ".

Windsurfing (RS: X) offers the first two finals of the sailing events on Saturday (2:33 p.m. for women, 3:33 p.m. for men, local time).

- "It is enormous!"

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"I'm now playing for gold, 6 points behind the Chinese. It's a guaranteed medal: it's huge!", Burst with joy the Charentaise, who had taken a break after Rio to give birth to her first child, Lou.

"The level is intense. We have to go for the gold on Saturday. It will be tough, but I want to finish in a good Medal Race. I will produce the best possible race on Saturday," added the physiotherapy graduate.

For her trainer Cédric Leroy, who has been following her since her teenage years when she started snowboarding at La Tremblade (west), "anything is possible, because the Briton Wilson is capable of the best or the worst, and especially of collapsing as it has already done in medal races at Worlds in particular ".

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As for the Chinese Lu Yinxiu, victorious of a World Cup stage in 2019 on the same lake of Enoshima and disappeared since during the competitions, it is the opponent that Charline Picon feared the most before these Games .

Despite three races won out of 12, Thomas Goyard could not cope with the consistency of the Dutchman Kiran Badloe, assured before the medal race of his first Olympic title at 26, after three world titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The New Caledonian has all the cards in hand to do at least as well as Pierre Le Coq, in bronze on the same day as Picon in 2016 in Rio, or as Julien Bontemps, current co-trainer of La Rochelaise, and silver in 2008 in Beijing.

"I first want to salute the performance of Kiran", reacted sportingly for AFP Thomas Goyard who "will do everything to make his contribution to the balance sheet of France".

In the other series started on Thursday, Camille Lecointre and Aloïse Retornaz's women's 470 confirms that he will play for the win, with a provisional third place after four rounds.

Jérémie Mion and Kévin Peponnet's 470 are 10th.

In the Nacra 17 catamaran, Quentin Delapierre and Manon Audinet are sixth.

In Laser, Jean-Baptiste Bernaz occupies sixth place and Marie Boulou twelfth.

Lucas Rual and Emile Amoros on their 49er are 15th.

© 2021 AFP