The French swordsmen are currently without rivals: after Romain Cannone’s individual title on Tuesday, they won the team event of the 2022 World Fencing Championships on Friday in Cairo.
The Blues, defending champions since 2019, beat their great Italian rivals 45 to 42 in the final to offer the tricolor delegation their sixth medal of the Egyptian week, their fourth in gold.
Since the Tokyo Olympics last summer, the French swordsmen have raided the medals at major events with an individual Olympic title for Cannone, the European title for Guadeloupe’s Yannick Borel and a team bronze medal at the of the European Championships last month, before Cairo’s golden double.
To reach the final, Hugues Obry’s shooters, who returned to France after a remarkable stint at the head of the Chinese team, beat the Swiss 45 to 42 in the quarter-finals, then the Hungarians 45 to 37 in the semi-finals. final.
In the final, it was not until the penultimate stint, that of Alexandre Bardenet who sickened Federico Vismara 5 to 2, that the Blues took a definitive advantage against the Italians.
The French women’s foil team has won the bronze medal by overcoming the Japanese in the match for 3rd place 40 to 34. They were trailing 28 to 26 before a dazzling last stint from Pauline Ranvier (7-1) who outclassed her Japanese opponent. The French, with Guadeloupe’s Ysaora Thibus, crowned individual world champion this week, lost 45 to 35 in the semi-finals against the Americans.