Symptomatic. The French pre-selection in recurve last week in Compiègne, which included three Brienonnais, Antony Barbier, Valentin Corsin and Louise Botte, resulted in an 11th place for the first city as the best performance from Icaun (only the first 8 were selected) . A national reference and regular supplier of French internationals (Ruggieri, Schuh, Guy, Kaczmareck, etc.) in the discipline, the Sentinelle is seen to be slowed down in its cruising speed, to say the least. Evidenced by his last team season, where the satisfactory 6th place of the boys overall in Division 1 could not make us forget the very disappointing 11th of the women.
The future is far from bleak, I remain positive.
Fairly lucid about this decline, its president François Degrange is still far from sounding the alarm. “Regarding the last individual selections, we knew it would be difficult. Anthony Barbier broke his record and still has legitimate ambitions. and solid, with three archers among the best French 20-25. Among the girls, it’s more complicated, we’re in a bit of a free fall with the loss of our three headliners (Océane Guy, Élodie Kaczmareck and Bérengère Schuh) who dropped out. We are heading towards a complete remodeling of the team. But I have no more concerns than in previous seasons, we always have people at the club (around 170 members). The future is far from bleak, I remain positive”, relativizes the kingpin of the club for more than a quarter of a century.
premium The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games still in the sights of Yonne
A stronghold of French archery, the Sentinelle nevertheless saw the emergence of more urban and financially better armed competitors, gradually overshadowing it: “Nîmes, Riom, Compiègne or Rennes are taking our place in the France and recruit with a vengeance. They attract the light to them”, concedes François Degrange.
Financial partners in the sights
However, it was out of the question for the experienced national technician to change the recipe that made his people famous. “We will continue to rely on our training, it’s our base. I don’t really know what it will be like next season, but we will wait for the emergence of our young people, it can be interesting”, fixed the Brionnais president.
In the good news department, the latter will be able to rely on brand new facilities from June 2023 with an indoor archery center at 20 targets (work in progress). What hope to restore somewhat the image of the Sentinel: “For the first time in many years, I also have three or four financial partners in sight, book François Degrange. We will be able to enter a new dimension.”
A number. 1. 2022 sounds like the first season (since 2000) where the Sentinel of Brienon-sur-Armançon finishes outside the top 10 of the general team D1 among women (11th). In 22 consecutive D1 exercises, the Brienonnaises have been champions 4 times (2019, 2015, 2009 and 2008) and have been on the podium 12 times.
Florent Leybros
[email protected]
