ten months before the Games, Frenchman Boris Neveu wins the kayak cross in the Olympic canoe slalom pool

2023-10-08 18:14:14
Boris Neveu, after his victory in kayak cross, Sunday October 8 in the Olympic basin of Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne). Credit: Romain Bruneau. CLAEYSSENS MARTIN

French kayaker Boris Neveu won, Sunday October 8, the final kayak cross of the World Cup season in the Vaires-sur-Marnes basin (Seine-et-Marne), Olympic site for the Paris 2024 Games in less of ten months (July 26 to August 11). Already a silver medalist at the Worlds two weeks earlier, the 37-year-old veteran confirms his knowledge in this discipline which will appear for the first time on the Games program next summer.

World champion in K1 slalom (kayak) in 2014 then 2021, this victory for Neveu at home on Sunday further complicates the puzzle of the Olympic selection for the French Canoe Kayak Federation (FFCK). She must announce her list (two men, two women) on Thursday October 12 to the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, which is responsible for ultimately ratifying these choices. Neveu is in the balance with the prodigy Titouan Castryck, 19, who won the World Cup slalom on Saturday in the same Vaires-sur-Marne basin.

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However, a nation cannot have more than one quota in slalom. One of those selected in C1 (canoe) or K1 (kayak) must be automatically lined up in kayak cross. The FFCK will only know if it can benefit from a second boat in each kayak cross event in June, at the end of the final qualifying competition. “In June 2024, there will be a specific kayak cross qualifying tournament. You have to be in the Top 3 of nations to have an additional quota for men and one more for women,” precise to Monde Rémi Gaspard, performance director of the FFCK. In total, France could hope for two men’s bibs and two women’s bibs in kayak cross (or extreme slalom).

Potential medal vein

The discipline therefore presents itself as a potential source of medals for the French team, capable of doubling the French chances of a podium in canoe-kayak slalom at the Games. The French team has just won two during the World Championships in the discipline at Lee Valley, site of the London 2012 Olympic Games: those of Camille Prigent among the women and Boris Neveu among the men, in finals where half boats at the start were tricolor.

Unlike classic slalom, the four paddlers launch at the same time from the pool, sliding down a ramp more than two meters above the water. The course only includes 6 buoys (compared to 25 in slalom), and touching them does not add penalties. “It requires less technical finesse, but it is more physical because you have to succeed in getting the boat off the ground on one or two supports to make the difference”describes the Frenchman Anatole Delassus, whose specialty it is. “The start is very challenging, a bit like BMX or ski cross, summarizes Frédéric Rebeyrol, the coach of the French kayak cross teams. There is also a lot of suspense, because until the end, twists and turns are possible. »

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The World with AFP