2021 Paralympic Games: cyclist Alexandre Léauté wins first gold medal for the fra delegation – franceinfo

The French Paralympic team holds its first gold medal! Alexandre Léauté won the pursuit, category C2, dominating the Australian Darren Hicks, Thursday August 26th. At 20, the para-cyclist offered himself a Paralympic title for his first participation in the Games, and gave a third medal to the French delegation.

In the final, Alexandre Léauté did not expect to face Darren Hicks. The mano a mano announced was with a Belgian, Ewoud Vromant. The world champion of the discipline, ahead of Alexandre Léauté, had dominated the qualifications, taking over the world record just broken by his French rival. But the organizers announced the disqualification of the Belgian, for a violation of the regulations concerning the settings of his bike.

The French then took on the favorite outfit, by his recent results but also because he had just faced, and dominated, Darren Hicks during his qualifying series. Even if the Australian had a world champion title in his record in 2019, Alexandre Léauté had the wind in his back. And he assumed his status to win his first Olympic title, almost four seconds ahead of Hicks. Enough to improve again the world record, now lowered to 3 minutes 31 seconds and 478 hundredths.