Little pleasure of the Paralympic Games: waking up with a new gold medal in the bag.

An ephemeral tradition that the cyclist Florian Jouanny, winner of the in-line race in H2 on his handbike, was keen to perpetuate.

This is the seventh Paralympic coronation for France, which also has 38 medals in Tokyo.

It's starting to be tough.

Jouanny in time trial mode

"I learned in passing the line that it was the first [gold medal] for the French handbike, I did not believe it", reacts Florian Jouanny who writes a page of French para-cycling.

Florian Jouanny is Paralympic champion in road cycling 🇫🇷🔥🥇



The Frenchman wins after leading the race from start to finish!

This is the 7th gold medal for France #JeuxParalympiques pic.twitter.com/K9NY7QfsBU

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) September 1, 2021

He quickly took the lead on the course arriving at Fuji Speedway and relegated his first pursuer the Italian Luca Mazzone, in silver the day before, to more than four minutes by completing the 53 kilometer race at 28.9 km / h average.

"I saw that I had made a small hole and I said to myself: I'm going for it, I'm doing fifty kilometers alone, against the clock," he describes.

Paid choice.

Vergnaud wearing the pole

The French handbike could even have welcomed a second gold medal in the wake, in category H5, but Loïc Vergnaud, who had, it was thought, done the hardest by giving away his last two breakaway companions. , ended up being caught on the line by one of them: Mitch Valize, already world champion in June ahead of him.

For his first Games at 41, already furnished with two silver medals, the Roanne can collect another in relay on Friday with Florian Jouany and Riadh Tarsim.

Promising.

French table tennis is adorned with bronze

If the final refused to offer itself to French table tennis on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the bronze did not escape two duos, Thomas Bouvais-Clément Berthier and Anne Barnéoud-Thu Kamsomphou as well as to a trio, Florian Merrien-Nicolas Savant-Aira and Maxime Thomas.

The harvest is of quality for French Paralympic table tennis players.

Sport

Paralympic Games 2021: France wins 7th gold medal thanks to Florian Jouanny

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