Text : Olivier Remy // Photos : Amandine Lauriol

Everything was pretty good for the French team this Saturday at 9am. Indeed, if Inès Mehnana (-67kg) failed to win against Spain's Moreno, an athlete at the top of the classification of the -67kg category, the other six French of the day passed their first round, generating a lot of noise and encouragements from the spans of the Marcel Cerdan Sports Palace. The thrills came in particular from Souleyman Alaphilippe (-68kg), untenable on his first round dispatched 16-0 against the Croatian Crep, while Théo Lucien (-68kg) chained on the opposite carpet by pulling his first lap against Australian Summerfield in the final seconds of the third round. Manissa Lakehal-Rollings also won, like Kanelya Karabin, in the same -57kg category, and Olympic medallist Cyrian Ravet threw a superb dollyo tchagui to finish his first lap. As a result, Magda Wiet-Henin (-67kg) went out with a smile and visibly a lot of fun. Not a perfect copy, far from it, but a nice impression of density and combativity. Next? A chain of defeats in less than an hour with the effect that none of the six would win the quarter. The grimace soup for this team from France, who could still count on a stage that was entirely acquired in its cause.