After winning 11 medals in para cycling on Tuesday, the French continued their harvest on Thursday morning, despite complicated weather conditions, with a new title for Florian Jouanny in these Paralympic Games, the 16th for the French delegation, before the start of the para judo events.
Four days after the end of the track, and the day after a medal sweep, the para-cyclists set off late for the road events in Clichy-sous-Bois.
Florian Jouanny, who won gold in Tokyo and won bronze in the H2 men’s individual time trial the day before, retained his Olympic title in the H1-2 road race, a category intended for athletes with lower limb injuries who use a handbike, a bicycle propelled using the arms rather than the legs.
At the same time, the 24-year-old Frenchwoman Anaïs Vincent, who was taking part in her first Games, only achieved 5th place in the H1-4 road race.
First place went to Australian Lauren Parker, her third personal medal at the Paris 2024 games, after winning gold in the para triathlon on Monday and silver in the para cycling individual time trial on Wednesday.
– First day of para judo –
The para judokas made their entrance onto the tatami on Thursday with the first J2 women’s and men’s events, in which visually impaired judokas compete, unlike the J1 events intended for the blind.
Frenchwoman Sandrine Martinet, gold medalist in Rio and silver in Tokyo, finished her fight in just one minute against her German opponent to qualify for the semi-final of the -48kg category. She will face China’s Li Liqing in the semi-final.
Anatole Rubin was eliminated in his first fight in the -60 kg category by the Spaniard Luis Daniel Gavilan Lorenzo.
– Chances of medals in para swimming –
At the end of the day, France has several chances of medals in para swimming.
First with Laurent Chardard in the 100m freestyle in category S6, reserved for athletes with a physical disability.
This Reunion Islander, who lost his right arm and leg following a shark attack, came first in his heat on Thursday morning, after winning bronze on Tuesday in the 50m butterfly, his first Paralympic medal.
Then, the public at the Arena la Défense will meet Ugo Didier for the 200m medley in the SM9 category.
The athlete who has already won gold and silver at these Games also finished first in his heat in the morning. In the final, he will face another French swimmer, also a silver medalist: Hector Denayer, who nevertheless came fourth in his heat.
The Blues of blind football will play the only semi-final of French team sport at the Paralympic Games on Thursday evening against the Colombians, after winning 2-0 against the Turks on Tuesday.
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