Axel May
The French handball team is in the starting blocks. After their title of Olympic champions acquired in Tokyo, the Blues leave this Monday for Poland where they will compete in the world championship with the objective of returning all dressed in gold.
Direction Poland for the French handball players. The Olympic champions, bronze in 2019 and fourth in 2021, hope to regain first place at the 2023 World Cup which begins this week. They will play their first game against hosts Poland on Wednesday.
Express preparation and maximum ambitions
After express preparation, punctuated by two victories in friendly matches, the Blues, led by their veteran Nikola Karabatic, 38, take off on Monday. “As the matches progress in the competition, we will play better and better, we will recover automatisms and benchmarks on the ground, between us”. The French handball star adds: “Ready? I don’t think you’re ever ready after so little preparation, but that’s how it is”.
Towards a new title?
18 players are on the trip, including the new kid Thibaud Briet. Finally, small, way to speak from the height of its 2m05. “The preparation matches are good. But we want to get into the real thing, to get into the hard. There is a lot of desire in me. If there is the medal, and I hope that there will be one, so much the better. But first, I focus on myself”.
The Blues will settle this Monday afternoon in their hotel in Katowice, in the south of Poland, where they will play the matches of the preliminary round. With the idea of winning back a planetary title at the end of the month that has eluded them for two editions, which on the scale of French handball, used to being close to the heights, is an eternity.