Tokyo (AFP)
Five new medals, including three gold, garnished the French table at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Friday, which exceeded the fifty mark.
With 51 podiums, the France team is only one unit of its 2008 total in Beijing two days before the end of the competitions and the goal of 35 medals set before the Games has more than been reached. .
Even gold, rarer from the start, abounded on Friday with the Paralympic titles of Kévin Le Cunff in cycling, Stéphane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in the men's double in wheelchair tennis as well as Fabien Lamirault and Stéphane Molliens in table tennis by teams.
In order, the eighth gold medal first came from the former professional rider Kévin Le Cunff in the road race (category C4-C5).
- The Cunff "came to win" -
"I had come to win, even second, that did not interest me," says the 33-year-old cyclist present for the first time at the Games.
Paralympic Games medal table, first 20 delegations Simon MALFATTO AFP
Under contract with the Saint-Michel Auber team between 2017 and 2019, Kévin Le Cunff even has a victory among the able-bodied in the Buckles of the Alder in 2018 in front of the former French champion Arthur Vichot and Guillaume Martin, eighth of the last Tour de France.
"I missed the first four events, he delivers. I really had to catch up on the last and that's what happened."
Born with two club feet, he underwent two arthrodesis on his ankles (blocked by operation) and retains an atrophied calf.
No longer finding a professional contract, he only joined the world of para cycling in 2020 and therefore brought him his fifth gold medal in Tokyo.
Already on the list of these titles, Alexandre Lloveras and Corentin Ermenault also took bronze in the tandem road race on Friday.
The last of the 16 medals won by French para cycling, the biggest provider of podiums at these Games, ahead of table tennis.
French table tennis player Fabien Lamirault, during a match against Czech Jiri Suchanek, at the Tokyo Paralympics, August 26, 2021 Charly TRIBALLEAU AFP / Archives
The eleventh medal for the French table tennis players was won by Fabien Lamirault and Stéphane Molliens in the team tournament (Class 1-2).
The pair retained their Rio title against South Koreans Soo Yong Cha and Jin Cheol Park.
"We came as the number one favorite, we found the number two in the final. It was the expected final, it was as tense as five years ago, long, not won in advance", summarizes Fabien Lamirault.
The latter, already crowned in singles Monday, brought the point of victory by beating Yong in four sets.
"When we are the title holders, we are the ones to beat, describes Stéphane Molliens. We saw it, they entered body and soul in this final. We were able to resist when needed, to be conquerors at other times. And Fabien has finished this job perfectly. "
This is the latter's sixth medal, the fourth in gold.
the French tandem Corentin Ermenault-Alexandre Lloveras during the Tokyo Paralympics, on the Izu on Augus velodrome, August 25, 2021 Charly TRIBALLEAU AFP / Archives
One more than the titled flag bearer Stéphane Houdet with his doubles partner Nicolas Peifer in wheelchair tennis on Friday.
- "The most beautiful" for Houdet -
The French pair beat Britons Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid 7-5, 0-6, 7-6 (6/3) in a remake of the Rio final five years ago.
"This medal, it is huge, reacts Stéphane Houdet. The English have won everything since the start of the year, are seeded number one."
"For me, it's the most beautiful (victory, editor's note) because repeating is really strong", relishes the standard bearer.
At 50 years old, the one who has 23 Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles, garnishes his record with a fifth Paralympic medal, the third in gold.
French Stéphane Houdet in the doubles final against British pair Alfie Hewett-Gordon Reid in Tokyo, September 3, 2021 Philip FONG AFP
Conversely, Rémy Boullé climbed to his first Paralympic podium.
The soldier, paraplegic following a parachute accident during training, won the bronze medal in the final of the 200-meter kayak (category KL1).
© 2021 AFP