Paralympic Games: golden first for Léauté, Bourlon raises the silver ... what to remember from Thursday

And a first gold medal for the French delegation in these Paralympic Games!

Alexandre Léauté went for the title in track cycling, in individual pursuit in the C2 category.

Very good performance also for Axel Bourlon, silver medalist in weightlifting in -54 kg.

On the other hand, the French disappointments came from fencing and wheelchair rugby.

We give you the recap of this third day in Tokyo.

Léauté in beauty

A big first for the French delegation in Tokyo, with Alexandre Léauté's gold medal in track cycling.

Le Breton, only 20 years old and hemiplegic from birth following a stroke, won the supreme award in individual pursuit.

The young track cyclist at the same time beats the world record for the discipline, the C2, in 3 minutes 31 seconds and 478 thousandths.

He won against the Australian Darren Hicks in the final, blowing him by almost 4 seconds.

🇫🇷🚴: First gold medal for France!

Incredible performance by Frenchman Alexandre Leaute who smashed the Paralympic record with a time of 3'31''478 in the final of the C2 pursuit 🥇

▶ Follow the Paralympic Games live: https://t.co/hxuki9cumu pic.twitter.com / xbQ5RMnX5E

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 26, 2021

Already five times world champion, the French prodigy adds a new title to his list of achievements.

“I worked really hard to get there, (…) I don't think I realize what just happened to me yet.

I will try to savor!

“, He rejoiced at the end of the race.

A performance hailed by Emmanuel Macron on Twitter: “20 years old and already a great champion!

"

Silver bourlon

The beautiful French day at the Tokyo Paralympic Games continued with the beautiful silver medal Axel Bourlon in weightlifting (-54 kg).

The Frenchman lifted a third bar at 165 kg in the para bench press, far from the 174 kg of Kazakh David Degtyarev, titled this Thursday.

🇫🇷🥈🤩 NEW MEDAL !!

Axel Bourlon becomes vice-paralympic champion in bench press in -54kg 🏋 #JeuxParalympiques

Follow the Games live ▶ https://t.co/hxuki9cumu pic.twitter.com/sqnxBajgob

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 26, 2021

"This medal represents the pride of the work accomplished, all these past years", exulted the Roannais, overwhelmed by the emotion of this "immense happiness", after a difficult night with less than five hours of sleep.

"The night was a little short, making all the possible scenarios in my head," explained Axel Bourlon, suffering from achondroplasia, a growth disorder endowing him with a small stature.

Disappointments in fencing and wheelchair rugby

The day was not all rosy for the Blues in the Japanese capital.

On the fencing side, Romain Noble, in category A, and Yohan Peter, in category B, were eliminated early in the epee.

The first, silver in 2012, was in the race for a medal but did not pass the hens.

Peter himself was claiming Olympic gold, only five years after his debut in the discipline: “Going out to a round of 16, that was surely not the program.

"

😔🗣 Big disappointment for Yohan Peter who fails in the Round of 16 of the Individual Epee.

He will be keen to shine by going for a medal at the Paralympic team tournament!

#Paralympic Games

▶ Follow these Paralympic Games live: https://t.co/hxuki9cumu pic.twitter.com/5yy85Bc07C

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 26, 2021

The other bad news of the day came from para rugby.

Already beaten from the start by Japan, the France team has chained a second defeat in a row against Australia (48-50).

Cédric Nankin's teammates have one last chance to qualify for the semi-finals.

The Blues will have to beat Denmark and hope for a large victory for Japan against their opponent of the day.

Image of the day: Céline Gerny's crying

A terrible moment for the entire French delegation.

The rider Céline Gerny was eliminated in parade for having exceeded the deadline before starting her performance.

The Habs did not hear the first sound of the bell which told him that she had sixty seconds to reach the course.

A minute later, at the second bell, a judge came to announce to Céline Gerny and her mare Rhapsodie, their disqualification.

🇫🇷😥 The tears of Céline Gerny

The French rider is disqualified from the para dressage competition for having started her performance too late 🐴

Follow the Games live ▶ https://t.co/hxuki9cumu pic.twitter.com/g2OQlVVOJQ

- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 26, 2021

The Frenchwoman then left the equestrian park in tears on her horse.

For his third Paralympic Games after Beijing (2008) and Rio (2016), Gerny came to win his first medal.

The story ended far too soon.

The program of tomorrow (and the committed French):

ARMCHAIR FENCING

Pool 2 preliminaries, Team épée with Maxime Valet, Damien Tokatlian, Yohan Peter and Romain Noble from 1:30.

ARCHERY PARA

Classification round: Women Free Compound Bow with Julie Chupin from 2:00 a.m., Men's Free Recurve Bow with Guillaume Toucoullet from 7:00 a.m., Men's Free Compound Bow with Eric Pereira Daniel Lelou from 7:00 a.m., Mixed Free Compound Bow with Eric Pereira, Daniel Lelou and Julie Chupin from 07:00 am.

PARA SWIMMING

Men's 200m freestyle qualifying (S14 category) with Nathan Maillet at 2:12, Men's 400 freestyle qualifying (S13 category) with Alex Portal at 03:32.

PARA AVIRON

Women singles, PR1 PR1W1x single scull qualifiers with Nathalie Benoît at 2:30 a.m., PR2 PR2Mix2x mixed double scull qualifiers with Christophe Lavigne and Perle Bouge from 03:50, PR3 PR3Mix4 + coxswain mixed with Remy Taranto, Erika Sauzeau, Robin le Bar, Antoine Jesel and Margot Boulet from 4:50 am.

TABLE TENNIS PARA

Individual Men, 8th final with Stéphane Molliens (class 2) at 3.20 am, 16th final with Florian Merrien (class 3) at 4.40 am.

Group stages with Gilles de la Bourdonnaye (class 10) at 6:00 a.m., Mateo Boheas (class 10) at 6:40 a.m., Quarter-final with Nicolas Savant Aira (class 5) at 10:20 a.m.

Individual Women, group stage with Léa Ferney (class 11) at 5:20 am, and Anne Barneoud (class 7) at 6:40 am.

ARMCHAIR TENNIS

Individual Men, 1st round with Frédéric Cattaneo and Gaetan Menguy from 04h00, Double Women 1st round with Emmanuelle Morch and Charlotte Fairbank from 04h00.

PARA CYCLING

Qualifications, Individual Pursuit over 4000m Men (class C5) with Kevin le Cunff and Dorian Foulon at 04:14, Time Trial on 1000m Men (class C1-3) with Alexandre Léauté at 06:20, Time Trial on 500 m Women (class C4-5) with Marie Patouillet at 07:29 am.

PARA JUDO

Women (-48 kg): quarter-finals with Sandrine Martinet at 4:24 am.

RUGBY ARMCHAIR

France-Denmark, last match of the group stages at 04:30.

PARA ATHLETICS

200 m Women (category T37), 1st round with Mandy Francois-Elie at 04:37, Long jump Men (category T11), final with Ronan Pallier from 12:05, 5000 m Men (category T54), 1st round with Julien Casoli at 1:54 p.m.

PARA HORSE RIDING

Dressage Individual Grand Prix with Anne Frédérique Royon (guard I) at 9:00 a.m. and Chiara Zenati (grade III) at 9:14 a.m.

PARA TRIATHLON

PTS4 Hommes with Alexis Hanquinquant from 11:30 p.m.