The French duo Clément Berthier and Thomas Bouvais won the bronze medal in team table tennis class 8 on the night of September 1 to 2.
Beaten by Ukraine in the semi-final, Tourangeau Clément Berthier and his teammate Thomas Bouvais failed to advance to the table tennis final (class 8) at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. They nevertheless leave with a bronze medal.
????️ “It’s pretty promising for the future, I hope we can do even better in the next few years.”
By losing in the semi-final against the Ukrainian pair, Thomas Bouvais and Clément Berthier offered themselves bronze in the para table tennis team class 8 ⤵️????
– France Team (@EquipeFRA) September 1, 2021
This semi-final started with difficulty for the duo, who first lost in doubles in three sets (11-7, 11-8, 11-4). In singles, despite a well-managed first set (10-12), Thomas Bouvais was beaten sharply by Viktor Didukh (11-3, 11-2, 11-4).
A 4th medal for the Center-Val de Loire
It is the 37th medal of the French delegation for these Paralympic Games, and the 4th of the Center-Val de Loire, after the silver of Marie-Amélie le Fur in long jump, that of Sandrine Martinet in judo, and Raphaël Beaugillet’s bronze in para-cycling.
At only 21 years old, the third year student at Polytech Tours is certainly a disabled athlete, but he also trains with able-bodied people at the Joué-lès-Tours club. A table tennis player for more than 10 years, he became the French Youth Champion in 2013 and 2014 before winning the same title in the under-21 category in disabled sports.
Portrait of Clément Berthier, engineering student and high level athlete
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