At the end of a breathtaking duel against Germany, France snatched 3rd place to offer a second medal to French para-rowing.
At the end of the suspense. By just six hundredths of a second, the French mixed coxed four managed to beat Germany on the finish line and finish third in the last final of the day in Vaires-sur-Marne. By a few centimetres, after 2,000 metres of a very intense race. Candyce Chafa, Rémy Taranto, Grégoire Bireau, Margot Boulet and their coxswain Emilie Acquistapace thus perpetuated the tradition, three years after Tokyo where France had also won the bronze medal. At the time, in Japan, only Taranto and Boulet were already part of the Paralympic party.
This is the second medal for French para-rowing, after the bronze won earlier in the morning by Nathalie Benoit, who was probably hoping for one more but the PR13 mixed double sculls made up of Laurent Cadot and Guylaine Marchand fell through (6th and last in their final) while Benjamin Daviet and Perle Bouge proved too short (5th) in the PR12 mixed double sculls final. Nevertheless, the day ended well with this superb 3rd place for the mixed coxed four who managed to hold their own in a very open race, behind the untouchable English. This was what Emilie Acquistapace had announced before this final: “This is the first season where there is so much density. There are the English who are in front, and there are four boats for two places. Nothing is written in advance. Apart from the English, all the counters will be reset to zero.”
From the start of the race, the Blues settled into third position. A place they would never relinquish, even if the German boat proved very threatening thanks to a strong finish. Ahead by almost two seconds at the end with 500 meters to go, France kept a slight margin – 7’03”11 against 7’03”17 – behind the English in gold and the Americans in silver. This is the 19th French medal at these Paralympic Games.
