The women’s pursuit team brought France their second medal at the Track Cycling World Championships on Saturday in Glasgow, bronze again, with a feat over Italy that whets their appetite for the Paris Olympics.
Published on: 08/05/2023 – 22:36Modified on: 08/07/2023 – 09:02
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After the third place won by the men in team sprint the day before, the tricolor quartet – Marion Borras, Valentine Fortin, Marie Le Net and Clara Copponi – gradually made up for the delay against the defending champions to impose themselves narrowly with a time of 4:13.059 in the “little final”.
“We heard the coach say ‘same time, same time’ for three laps. We wanted to put an end to this curse of finishing behind the Italians. We believed in it until the end. It was tight, but here we go. it’s done,” reacted Clara Copponi.
The French women had already won bronze last year at the Worlds in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the site of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, in this discipline where they can nurture ambitions for next year.
Read alsoOlympic Games: Clara Copponi on track for Paris-2024
It will be difficult for them to get the British of Katie Archibald, who beat them in the previous round and who flew over the final in 4:08.771, more than four seconds ahead of New Zealand.
But this result confirms their progress and opens up great prospects for them.
Frenchwoman Marion Borras during qualifying for the individual pursuit of the Worlds, August 3, 2023 in Glasgow © Oli SCARFF / AFP
“We know that we still have work to do when we see where the first teams are today. But the New Zealanders are doing the same time as us in the final”, commented Marion Borras.
“On the box at the Olympics”
“We still have a level to cross, added Clara Copponi. At each stage we progress. We have passed a big level since Tokyo. We won against Italy and that will unlock something. Olympic Games. We are preparing for. We have to dream big.”
This new medal – last year, the Blues finished the Worlds at home with seven charms including three in gold – also brings a little joy to the French women’s team where the sprint is suffering for the moment.
Frenchwoman Mathilde Gros in the lead during the keirin series at the World Cycling Championships, August 5, 2023 in Glasgow © Oli SCARFF / AFP
Beaten in the team sprint qualifications, Mathilde Gros and Marie-Divine Kouamé suffered again in the keirin on Saturday.
Gros, the reigning world champion in the sprint, provided the essentials by qualifying with difficulty for the quarter-finals scheduled for Sunday after the downgrading of the Japanese Umekawa Fuko.
But Kouamé, who had also already dropped her world title in the 500m, was eliminated without glory in the repechages.
Team medalists the day before, Sébastien Vigier and Rayan Helal also disappointed on Saturday by being ejected from the round of 16 in the individual sprint.
European champion in the discipline in 2017 and 2022, Vigier was surprised by the Japanese Kaiya Ota, while Rayan Helal, former world junior champion, was dominated by the Australian Thomas Cornish.
The two Frenchmen especially paid for their bad times in qualifying completed respectively with 20th (Helal) and 23rd (Vigier) in time.
Frenchman Sébastien Vigier (g) beaten by Japanese Kaiya Ota in the round of 16 of the sprint at the World Cycling Championships, August 5, 2023 in Glasgow © Oli SCARFF / AFP
It’s a disappointment for the two men who had shone the day before by winning bronze with Florian Grengbo in team sprint.
They now have the keirin, another Olympic discipline, to leave Glasgow on a good note.
With AFP
