Yannick Borel's victory at the Budapest Grand Prix did not ease the tension.
He and two of his partners from the French fencing team, the reigning Olympic champion Romain Cannone and the double world team champion Alexandre Bardenet, settle scores with their former manager, Hugues Obry, and the French fencing federation. fencing in an interview given Friday to L'Equipe where they denounce "an infernal gear".
The trio, who now train entirely outside Insep, talk about how their relationship with Obry, who returned from China in 2021 to take charge of men's epee with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
It all started from a meeting, organized during the Worlds in July 2023 in Milan, where Obry would have, according to the trio, taken Yannick Borel to task.
“It’s my trial,” says the latter today, who explains that the former fencer accuses him of “personal things with my father.
Private things I confided to him.”
After another heated exchange at Insep in September, Hugues Obry was placed on sick leave and the trio decided to train mainly at a club.
He was arrested again in February, before submitting his resignation.
His former assistant Gauthier Grumier has since taken his place, but Obry remained on the staff as an assistant, in particular to manage the other shooters.
The new configuration does not satisfy the trio.
“I feel like spam in an inbox”
“In Gauthier's project, we are given a list of six slots at Insep until the end of May and basically, after that, it's
on your own
,” describes Borel.
And it is validated by the DTN.
For me, this is unacceptable.
We are relegated to options, we are tolerated.
We are still targeted by the ANS as potential medalists at the Games!
I feel like I'm spam in a mailbox that you put in junk folder.
»
“There, we see that we are going straight into the wall,” adds Romain Cannone.
We cannot continue like this with Hugues in the Olympic project and a DTN committed to his cause.
» “We no longer have a choice,” say the three men.
Contacted by Le Parisien, the national technical director Jean-Yves Robin has not yet responded to our requests.