In Mongolia, the French horse archery team was crowned world champion. Individually, the French won two titles as well as three medals.
While in France, the Rugby World Cup was starting, another international competition was opening. Indeed, from September 7 to 10, the world horse archery championships took place in Mongolia, in Ulaanbaatar. A competition where the French team shone.
For these championships, more than 8,000 km from France, the French riders did not travel with their usual mounts, but with horses rented on site. “It was not a foregone conclusion. But those we hired on site turned out to be very good, even if they were not used to the discipline”, indicates national coach Alan Le Gall. Crowned European champion last year, the French team moved forward with ambitions and the wish to glean five international medals, two more than during the last world championships in 2018 (team silver, bronze in individual among Juniors and Seniors).
“We managed strategically and it paid off”
At the end of the first day of competition, the French occupied the first four places in the standings in the Tower event, with Raphaël Malet second in the Raid. These results allowed France to take the lead in the provisional team rankings after the second day of competition. The championships ended with the main event of the discipline: hunting. On a hilly, 1200 m long course with various targets, riders can shoot forwards, backwards, or even on the ground.
Suffice to say that the Blues showed their know-how since in the Juniors, Chloé Simons won, as did Raphaël Malet in the Young Riders. In this same category, Jules Boisson takes second place with 67,500 pts. For their part, Gaétan Blot obtained silver among the Seniors and Rachel Bethoulières Recoussine the bronze (Juniors). Major performances allowing the French team to climb to the top of the podium and be crowned world champion in horseback archery ahead of Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
“The competition was tough, the Mongols, although they do not have much experience abroad, are a warlike people with very good control of their cavalry. It was quite competitive but we managed strategically and it paid off”, supports the coach. The French team leaves with five individual medals and the team title: the objective has been achieved. “We will continue to work in this direction, to be ready to defend our titles during the next deadlines, ambitions Jaouad Boustani, the technical advisor in charge of horseback archery, but also to bring out talents that are not yet quite ready today”.
2023-09-15 07:30:03
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