Enzo Lefort will not win the gold he had come to seek in Tokyo.
At least not individually, he who will have a second chance in teams next Sunday.
The foil player, reigning world champion (2019), was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Games, beaten 15 to 10 touches by the Italian Daniele Garozzo, Olympic champion in Rio in 2016. What predominates, said the French after his match, “it's disappointment and frustration.
I came across a very strong Garozzo tactically who was able to change quite a bit, blocking me on my strengths.
At one point, I found a small solution, but he was able to adapt and impose his game and from that moment on, I was unable to find the solution that would have tipped the match in my favor. ", He estimated.
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These three keys on red card that I take, at such a level, tip the scales to one side.
Enzo Lefort
At 5-5, Garozzo complained of a cramp in his left leg and had to seek treatment on the track for several minutes, before resuming the assault, painlessly.
Asked about this cramp, Lefort denied that it could be other than physiological: "Garozzo, he's a fighter, if he stopped the match, it's because he really had something, we only have respect between us on the track, it's not the type to spoil the match ”.
In this quarter-final, Lefort himself received three penalty points, jeopardizing his chances of winning against the gold medalist from Rio five years ago.
“These three touches on red card that I take, at such a level, tip the scales to one side,” he said, adding that the first one in particular “had hurt him. In a match that I lose 15-10, that really makes the difference, but these are facts of the game and the referee has the right to have his interpretation, so it's up to me to deal with it, ”he stressed. , before concluding. "Of the game, I had plenty of it, I just had to channel it, focus it only in my arm and not in my legs." Lefort was the last Frenchman entered in the individual foil table, after the premature eliminations of Julien Mertine and Maxime Pauty, in their first round.