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Happy money. Even if, obviously, as good competitors as they are, the French foilists Ysaora Thibus, Pauline Ranvier, Anita Blaze and Astrid Guyart will need a certain amount of time before appreciating this title of Olympic vice-champions - the first for the French women's foil since the Montreal Games in 1976 -, it should be shorter than for others in view of the scenario of an incredible day, where they will have really drawn the maximum of their potential. But against Russia, with its two foil players on the individual podium four days earlier - Inna Deriglazova in silver and Larisa Korobeynikova in bronze - the Blue could not do anything. From the start of the final, Kobeynikova gained the upper hand over Thibus (2-5), before Deriglazova did notdo the same against Blaze (5-10).
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Olympic Games: all the French medalists in pictures
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Excellent all day, Ranvier was trying to restart the machine by facing Marta Martyanova (4 touches everywhere, for a score of 9-14) at the end of a stint made very long by the injury of the Russian, ultimately of no consequence. . But the Russians did not tremble and the Blue had to wait for Thibus' second pass, facing the same Martyanova, to see a stint finish in their pocket (18-25). Alas, in the process, Ranvier suffered the law of Deriglazova (5 touches to 2, (20-30) and Russia was not surprised by the replacement of Blaze by Astrid Guyart, who cashed a crippling 5-1 (21- 35) Behind, mass was said, the Russians flying to a victory as logical as it is deserved (34-45).
But before this one-sided final, for the Blue, there had been a half, and what a half! At the end of an incredible “remountada” at the tip of foil, Thibus and his partners literally knocked down Italian women who should already have seen themselves at least with money around their necks at the end of the evening when they were leading 24-12 . In great difficulty, Blaze had just conceded a 10-3 on his first two stints and even Thibus, however voluntary, could not really close the gap on his second pass (7 touches to 5, 16-25 in total ). Until Ranvier came to inflict a 9-5 on Arianna Errigo to revive the suspense (25-30). Behind, Blaze resumed colors to equalize at 31-31, before suffering the reaction of Martina Batini (31-35).Everything then played out in a final duel with speckled foil between an imperial Thibus and Errigo, the one by whom La Botte took the water. With an assault concluded with an 8-3 (success 45-43) as magnificent as it had been unexpected a quarter of an hour earlier.
