Published on : 02/09/2021 – 07:19Modified : 02/09/2021 – 09:54
Cyclist Alexandre Léauté finished his Paralympic Games with a fourth individual medal. He finished third Thursday in the road race (C1-C3). His compatriot Marie Patouillet also won bronze in the road road race (C5).
Alexandre Léauté will leave loaded from Tokyo. The cyclist finished his Paralympic Games on Thursday 2 September with as many podiums as individual events. He won a bronze medal Thursday in the road race (C1-C3) at Fuji Speedway.
“At 20, getting four medals, I don’t have the words, it’s just fantastic”, reacted for his first Games the Breton who pedals only one leg, being hemiplegic on the right side.
In torrential rain, the rider was the fastest among the group of pursuers which arrived almost seven minutes after the British duo who took the first two places at the end of a hilly course of 79 kilometers.
“In this sprint, I have never looked so shabby, I had cramps 500 meters from the line,” he said. “In the last bump, I was really on the limit, it was going up very quickly. I was thinking about all the sacrifices I made,” he added. “I’m a competitor and three medals wasn’t enough for me, I needed a fourth.”
First gold medalist of the French delegation after his victory at the Izu velodrome in individual pursuit (category C2), he then took silver in the kilometer, then bronze in the road time trial. With such a record, the cyclist is already thinking of the Paris Games in three years: “I hope to be in Paris-2024, there will be my relatives. It will be in France, I will be expected, I think, with what I did this year. “
A second medal for Marie Patouillet
Marie Patouillet, already a bronze medalist on track in pursuit (C5), doubled the bet in the road race. Born with a malformation in one foot, the protégé of Grégory Beaugé took third place after a course identical to that of Alexandre Léauté. Only preceded, also by two British, including Sarah Storey.
The latter, with its 17e Paralympic gold medalist (including three in Tokyo) became her country’s most successful Paralympic athlete.
New medal for France ????????????
In dire conditions Marie Patouillet won the bronze medal in the C4-5 road race! In the medal duel, the Frenchwoman beat Colombian Paula Andrea Ossa Veloza in the sprint #Paralympic Games pic.twitter.com/rDZbYV229m
– francetvsport (@francetvsport) September 2, 2021
Still in cycling, the trio of Florian Jouanny, Loïc Vergnaud and Riadh Tarsim also won the silver medal in the handbike road relay. They were beaten by the Italians, but finished ahead of the Americans.
Florian Jouanny (H2) and Loïc Vergnaud (H5) had already been rewarded the day before with a gold and silver medal in individual.
In the Olympic stadium, Timothée Adolphe took his revenge after being disqualified in the 400m series for having lost the bond attaching him to his guide Bruno Naprix. The duo finished 2nd in the 100m final, setting a new personal best.
A few minutes later, Pierre Fairbank won at 50 the ninth Paralympic medal of his career by winning bronze in the 800m (T53).
In swimming, after finishing 6th in the 400m freestyle and 4th in the 100m butterfly, Florent Marais captured his first Paralympic medal. He won bronze in the 100m backstroke final (S10).
The French delegation now has 46 medals, including 7 in gold. The goal of 35 medals has already been largely exceeded.
With AFP
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