Tokyo (AFP)

The French men's épée team, Olympic champion in Rio-2016, was eliminated 45 to 44 in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament by Japan on Friday in Chiba, despite the presence in its ranks of the individual Olympic champion, Romain Cannone.

Loudly encouraged by a large Japanese delegation at Makuhari Messe Hall, the Japanese Masaru Yamada, Koki Kano and Satoru Uyama, who had earlier dismissed the Americans 45 to 39, bravely believed in their chances until the end, managing to equalize every time the Habs took the lead.

Before the last duel, the French were still leading 38-36 but Yannick Borel suffered a fatal 9-6.

Borel, favorite for individual gold, was eliminated from the start on Sunday.

"We are going to get back to work with a lot of humility," Borel explained, referring to the Paris-2024 Olympics meeting, adding that he was taking "his share of responsibility" in this defeat.

"I was alert, I knew I had to be very careful in view of my individual result but there I had my teammates, I was not alone. My slightest mistakes, I knew they were going to me to say them so I was very attentive ", also affirmed the world champion 2018.

Borel, who was playing his third Olympics, said "blaming himself a lot" for the two-touch lead in the last stint that he was unable to keep: "it's painful to come out of these Games without a medal" .

"We feel below what is expected of us, we feel below everything," said the member of the Levallois club, visibly very affected but lucid.

The Tricolores will now have to play a classification match, against Switzerland, scheduled for 12:45 local (5:45 French).

"We expected a very close match, it is a strong nation of the sword, it is one of their weapons of choice in which they have progressed enormously. They had already given us problems during the Olympic qualification. ", Bardenet explained in the mixed zone, adding that France had yet" prepared "for this match.

"We did not know how to capitalize on our advance, they were able to stay in touch: it is a game that is played for nothing, it is the hard law of sport, it is a huge disappointment because we had come to seek gold therefore the pill is difficult to swallow ", added the Aveyronnais.

Cannone, gold medalist Sunday, for his part wanted to pay tribute to his teammates, "who have always been mentors: they taught me rigor, strategy and it remains a family that I would not trade for nothing in the world".

The men's epee, the traditionally strong weapon of French fencing, was crowned by teams at each edition since 2004 (the team event was not on the program in London in 2012).

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