Six months after the Olympic Games, France and the world’s best men’s athletes meet this Friday in the prestigious Paris International Challenge.
If the third part of the World Cup takes place at the Stade Pierre-de-Coubertin, not clay, Maxime Pauty and Julien Mertine agree: IPC, “It’s like our Roland-Garros”he said on Tuesday during a press conference at INSEP.
“On average, there are 3-4,000 viewers per day. For example, in Tokyo for a month and a half, there were maybe 100 people and this is unusual.explains Mertine, who wrote the date in his calendar for a long time, before he planned to retire at the age of 36.
A special meeting
“I talked to my coach, even before the Olympics, to go to the IPC and maybe do my last World Cup at home”he explains.
More than six months ago, despite being affected by Covid, the singer got a bronze medal at the Grand Palais, together with Maximilien Chastanet, Enzo Lefort and Maxime Pauty who also see the importance of the event.
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Welcome
“When I went there when I was six years old, I saw that the fence can be an amazing thing in terms of shape and atmosphere. I thought all World Cups were like this, but this is the only one”and Pouty.
While qualifying begins on Friday, before the main event on Saturday and the team event on Sunday, 300 shooters are announced. Among them, the country No. 1 and Hong Kong Olympic champion Cheung Ka Long, as well as silver medalist Filippo Macchi (No. 3) and American No. 2 Nick Itkin and on the podium at the Olympics.
Lefort will wait
In the group, the Blues have not been established since 2005, while we have to go back to 2014 and the victory of Enzo Lefort to find the results of the last victory of the French in Paris.
The world champion (2019, 2022), who has a knee problem, had to stop returning to the competition to receive treatment. “I’m lucky that it’s the year after the Olympics, I can take care of my body”he said on Tuesday.
The goal of the podium
For the Blues, this event will also be the first of six selections for the European Championship (June 14 to 19 in Genoa) and the World Championship (July 20 to 30 in Tbilisi). In the first two events of the season, in Tunis and Takazaki in Japan, the French twice won third place in the group. But it did not shine individually.
“When we don’t have a guy on shift or we don’t have someone in the box, for me it’s not satisfactory.warned coach Emeric Clos. It’s been a long time since we passed the IPC individually, it would be nice if someone got on the podium”. Start the year well.