Olympic Games: Michel Bourez, the ultimate blue chance for French surfing

Our special correspondent in Tokyo

To discover

• The full Olympic program

• The Olympic medal table

“

I hope we will have a cyclone or a small depression which will bring more swell.

»Before leaving Tahiti to join Japan and the Olympic Games, with a dozen boards under his arms, Michel Bourez confided his desire to see the wave from Tsurigasaki beach (a hundred kilometers east of Tokyo) force to offer other conditions and allow it to express its habit of big waves.

The storm hits the coast on Tuesday

The last survivor of French surfing (after the eliminations of Pauline Ado, Johanne Defay and Jérémy Flores) will discover more sustained conditions this Tuesday on the site which hosted the first Olympic surfing events. Storm Nepartak, gusts of up to 100 km / h, is expected to make landfall on Tuesday, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency quoted by

AFP.

The organizers have changed the program to take advantage of this wind (quarter-finals, semi-finals, bronze medal and final, for women and men). There should be no more waves on Wednesday, when the final tables of the surf tournaments were scheduled (quarter-finals, semi-finals, bronze medal, final for women and men).

Michel Bourez in contention on Tuesday against the Brazilian Gabriel Medina.

OLIVIER MORIN / AFP

Gabriel Medina, a big piece to face in the quarter-finals

Facing Michel Bourez, will stand in the quarterfinals the Brazilian Gabriel Medina, double world champion on the pro circuit (2014 and 2018) and current world No. 1.

“

It's good to be in the quarterfinals but it's not enough.

I dread Gabriel Medina a lot, who is the leader of the professional tour, he has almost only made the finals this year.

He's the fittest guy this season.

It will be a difficult series

, ”summed up the Tahitian on

L'Equipe

.

The Olympic rowing and archery competitions on Tuesday have been rescheduled so that the wind does not affect the events.

Olympic Games: all the French medalists in pictures

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