Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Thursday September 5, 2024 at 1:57 p.m.
After her elimination with her foil teammates in the quarter-finals, Brianna Vidé attacked the refereeing, which “was not up to the task”.
Bitter after her fourth place in the sabre on Tuesday, Brianna Vidé was unable to make up for it in the foil the next day, failing in the round of 16 before finally taking sixth place. On Thursday, she was back in the Grand Palais for the team foil event of the wheelchair fencing tournament at the Paris Paralympic Games, alongside Clémence Delavoipière and Cécile Demaude. Les Bleues first dominated Brazil (45-29), before losing heavily in the quarter-finals against the Hungarian favourites (19-45). And it was the circumstances of this setback that annoyed the Toulousaine.
“Inconsistent” decisions
“I’ll be honest, the refereeing wasn’t up to the task. We had the same referees as in the match I lost yesterday. So it was very complicated. Refereeing decisions that are difficult and inconsistent, which don’t allow us, in fact, to vary our game, she lamented for France Télévisions. In this case, you have to draw energy from elsewhere, and the energy is up there (in the crowd), they are fantastic. The crowd is the one who gives us strength in these moments of difficulty. And we wanted to go out with our heads held high. With the Hungarians, we have had a big dispute for a year. It was hard, but we have no reason to be disappointed, we played a great match.”
Born with a club foot, the podiatrist will have two more opportunities to win a medal in the capital. First on Friday in the épée, with a first match against Hong Kong’s Chui Yee Yu, who beat her by a whisker in her final foil repechage match (14-15). And on Saturday, she will defend her chances again in the team épée event.
