Roll on Sunday. Nothing to do with Michel Drucker, but France is already sure to add two medals to its record on the last day of the Tokyo Paralympic Games. In the meantime, Nélia Barbosa, silver in kayak, brought the only charm of this Saturday to the tricolor camp.
With 52 medals, the French team equaled its Beijing total in 2008 and it is even certain to exceed it with its two badminton finals on Sunday, which guaranteed its best record for seventeen years and the Athens Games.
New medal for France 🇫🇷🥈
Nelia Barbosa wins silver in the KL3 200m for her first Games! The Frenchwoman had a superb race, but had to bow to Laura Sugar. This is the 52nd medal #Paralympic Games
Follow the Games https://t.co/E6QQ2tcQgQ pic.twitter.com/em7mRnwQ1k
– francetvsport (@francetvsport) September 4, 2021
For her first Games, Nélia Barbosa took second place in the 200-meter kayak final (KL3 category). The best result of the 22-year-old Francilienne yet to climb on a world podium before Saturday. “I relaunched hard at the end, I could not do more, I had no more arms”, delivers the double vice-champion of Europe, amputated above the right ankle due to neurofibromatosis . She is already aiming for the top march in Paris in three years: “I really hope to win a gold medal in front of the public to encourage us. This is something that I look forward to. “
Two more gold medals?
Badists Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noël are aiming for gold on Sunday after qualifying for the mixed doubles final (SL3-SU5). “We wanted this final so badly that each point was a struggle and we conducted it perfectly,” says the 27-year-old.
Also qualified for the singles final (SL4 category), the double world champion (2017 and 2019) Lucas Mazur (23 years old), suffering from a malformation in his right ankle, can sign a double and imitate the table tennis player Fabien Lamirault, the only Frenchman to have won two titles in Tokyo. He had to rule out the Indian Tarun Dhillon, his rival in the last three world finals, in the semifinals. “I approached this match as a world championship final, I want to write history,” he says before facing another Indian, Suhas Yathiraj, with lesser references in the final on Sunday.
The disappointment for Keita
No gold on the other hand for Nantenin Keita, who remained at the foot of the podium in the 400 meters (category T13). With a lap of the track completed in 57 sec 17, the reigning Paralympic champion, daughter of Malian musician Salif Keita, misses the bronze medal of 38/100 for her fifth Games at 36 years old.