His day will have been long, very long, since after a failed group stage in the early morning, Yannick Borel had to play an extra round, compared to the majority of epee players qualified for the main draw in Antalya. But the Frenchman then went through his day with strength and determination, to win his fourth gold medal at the European Championships, after his coronations in 2016, in Poland, 2017, in Georgia and 2018, in Serbia.
In the final, for his seventh assault in 15 touches in the moist basketball hall which serves as a place of competition, he dominated, in a steamroller, the Dutch surprise Tristan Tulen, 57th in the world (15-1).
The other French swordsmen had rather disappointed. Romain Cannone, the Tokyo Olympic champion and world number one, lost in his first round of the main draw, against the Belgian Neisser Loyola, 67th in the standings (15-11). Alexandre Bardenet had fallen at the same stage, against the German Marco Brinkmann (15-12). And Alex Fava had suffered the law of Tulen (15-11) in the round of 16.
