The Marseillaise therefore did not resonate this Saturday in Coubertin’s lair. Accustomed to seeing PSG handball players celebrate their many victories, the hall in the west of the capital devoted the American Alexander Massialas to the Gentlemen and the Italian Alicia Volpi to the Ladies, who made their first appearance in this competition counting for the World Cup. The three best tricolors were Enzo Lefort, Alexandre Ediri, and Ysaora Thibus.
The reigning world champion, n°4 in the current ranking, managed to reach the semi-finals and therefore honored her ranking. The Guadeloupian from Bourg-la-Reine had so much merit that she had to, to join the last four, successively eliminate Anita Blaze and Pauline Ranvier, her two teammates from the silver French team at the Tokyo Games, each time on the same score (15-9).
The purists were hoping for a final between the world champion and the Olympic champion, the American Lee Kieffer, but Volpi (world No. 2) decided otherwise. With seven participants, the French women rank 3rd, 5th, and 12th for the best. Too bad for Thibus, who may have the opportunity to take his revenge this Sunday in the team event. As for the boys.
For the latter, who had 11 qualified, the performance was rather disappointing with six eliminations in the 1st round of the table of 64. Maxime Pauty, 2nd in Tokyo at the beginning of December, does not pass the next one, like Maximilien Chastanet, the French n°2 . In the round of 16, the confrontation between Alexandre Ediri (n°21) and Pierre Loisel (23rd in the world), who previously eliminated the Italian Giorgio Avola (n°17) and the American Nick Itkin (n°7), turns to the advantage of the first (15-11). Unfortunately, the Meldois then falls on another Italian, Guillaume Bianchi, the surprise guest (9-15) and unfortunate future finalist.
Since 2014, no Habs have managed to win on their land. At the time, Enzo Lefort had managed to do well and since then, the fencer from CE Melun VDS, twice world champion in title, has made his place in the history of French foil. The Olympic team champion does not ultimately go beyond the quarter-finals either, beaten (12-15) by the young Hong Kong prodigy Cheung Ka-Long, Olympic individual champion in Tokyo and winner last year at Coubertin. .