Hanquinquant offers France the third gold medal …

The recap of August 28,

Let’s get rid of the only bad news of the evening at the Tokyo Paralympic Games and then focus on the rest: France came out of the Top 10 on the medal table and is ranked 13th on Saturday morning, behind Azerbaijan and France. Uzbekistan. But to hell with the rankings, the French delegation still gorged itself well on the night from Friday to Saturday, with a gold medal and eight other Paralympic podiums.

Hanquinquant at the top in triathlon

Triple world and European triathlon champion, Alexis Hanquinquant, for his first Games, assumed his role as favorite in the PTS4 category and offered France its third Paralympic title, while setting the tone for a generous day in medals.

“The plan went perfectly”, relishes the Norman of 35 years, amputated of the right leg below the knee following an accident at work on a building site in 2010. He was then champion of France of boxing full-contact for the able-bodied. “The best strategy was to attack, when I get out of the water and I’m told 25 seconds apart, I tell myself that it’s really a good day”, describes the triathlete who relegated to close by four minutes his Japanese pursuer Hideki Uda, after 750 m of swimming, 20 km of cycling and 5 km of running.

The Silver Fur

A little less success on the side of Marie-Amélie Le Fur, but a very good performance all the same: for her fifth Games, she succeeded in winning a ninth medal. Holder of the title in the long jump (category T64), the president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) came close to keeping it with a last jump to 6.11 meters, too short of only five centimeters. Really bad luck.

Bronze, bronze, more bronze

On the Izu velodrome track, already providing four podiums since the start of the Games, the duo formed by Raphaël Beaugillet and the seven-time world champion in the able-bodied, François Pervis, took the bronze medal for the tandem kilometer for 82/100. ” At last ! », Savored the visually impaired cyclist. “And thank you to François for joining the project. Today, we have become one. “

Four medals of the same metal fell in table tennis. The experienced Thu Kamkasomphou, 52, scored a sixth individual podium (Class 8) in six Games. She started her Paralympic adventure in 2000 with a title in Sydney (in Class 9 at the time).

As in Rio, wheelchair table tennis player Maxime Thomas also took third place in individual (Class 4), his fourth Paralympic medal added to those obtained by teams. It was imitated by Lucas Créange, who gleaned his first medal in Class 11, dedicated to cognitive disability, and by Anne Barnéoud: aphasic and hemiplegic on the right side since a stroke at four years old, she won her first individual medal. (Class 7), after a bronze medal obtained by teams in Beijing, in 2008.