Reinvigorated by the good results of its teams at the Olympic Games and a historic medal for women at Euro 2021, the French table tennis team tackles the Worlds which begin this Tuesday in Houston, pumped up, but also exhausted by a crazy schedule.
Tunis, Slovenia, United States then Singapore for the best, table tennis players never breathe. At the time of approaching these first post-Olympic Worlds, the rackets are full of sweat and the minds as out of breath as the bodies. No time to dawdle. In Houston, an original place for table tennis players – more inhabited in Europe and Asia – it is about laying stones for Paris 2024 and confirming the growth of the tricolor ping.
In Tokyo, the pair Emmanuel Lebesson-Jian Nan Yuan finished at the foot of the podium in mixed doubles. Simon Gauzy made the Chinese Fan Zhendong (3-2 defeated), ex world number 1, tremble during the team quarter-final. And the women have sealed a historic bronze medal during the Team Euro, a first since 1962. It wriggles in the French ranks with also the nugget Prithika Pavade, 17 years old, absent because of her ranking, and formidable in recent years. weeks.
In Texas, Ma Long, the two-time Olympic men’s singles champion, and other big names from the rectangular table empire will be missed. The young red wave will be sent to the fire to test its leather for the next Olympic Games. The wall will remain very solid with five representatives of the best nations per table.
Gauzy again on an uphill slope
“It’s harder to win a medal in the world than in the Olympics, explains Simon Gauzy, 18th in the world. There are five Chinese against two at the Games. In 2019, I make the quarter-final by beating a Chinese. The pressure is on. We know that the new Chinese are strong, but will they be able to tell themselves that they have to take over without their head of the gondola? There are a lot of obstacles beforehand. I can’t think of everything immediately to the Chinese, you have to go step by step. “
After a post-Olympics slack, the French leader comes back strong: quarter-final in singles in Slovenia and final in mixed with Pavade. This NBA fan would like to take a little outing to see the Rockets. “He is not a new Gauzy but he has more qualities and fewer faults, judge Patrick Chila, the boss of the boys. He is one of the very best, he puts more into perspective, he is a dad. He makes good choices at the on the calendar, he has a little more of a long-term view than he could possibly have had. “
The best placed mixed doubles
It is towards the mixed doubles that all eyes are turned. Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan felt the charm in the Tokyo Taikukan last summer. 10 days ago, they confirmed by winning a tournament in Tunisia. “At the Olympics, we became aware of the level of mixed doubles because we perhaps did not think it was so close to the medal”, according to Emmanuel Rachez, the head of the 2024 unit. Patrick Chila believes that this result has passed the ping pong among the medal-winning sports in 2024, whereas it was not before Tokyo. This pair will be put in competition with that of Gauzy-Pavade and others.
Pavade, the big absent, has a little dynamited this female group. With Jia Nan Yuan, the collective is progressing and the historic Euro team medal has whetted the appetite of Pauline Chasselin, aligned in Houston, and her teammates. “We have a fairly competitive French team, reminiscent of Lorraine. We knew it but to have been able to win a European medal shows that we are growing. The competition is more and more there, the youngest than me are growing more and more. more, the France group is very homogeneous, everyone can have their place. “
The French Table Tennis Federation has initiated hyper-individualization work at the top of the basket. It repatriated Jean-René Mounié, coach of Brazilian Hugo Calderano, best non-Asian player, and Michel Blondel, former sports director at Insep and coach of Simon Gauzy, to his club in Ochsenhausen in Germany. In Houston, we can witness the launching of the first stage of the French ping rocket for Paris 2024.
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