Leonie Perrault 2nd in Yokohama and Leo Berger 3rd
French sprinter Leonie Perrault, fifth at the Olympics in Tokyo, finished second on the World Championships (WTCS) stage in Yokohama after Britain’s Georgia Taylor Brown.
The best French woman in an Olympic sprint with a fifth in Tokyo, Leonie Perrault finished in the wake of Taylor Brown, six seconds after her first WTCS win, but five seconds ahead of Olympic champion, Bermudian Flora Duffy.
At 27, Périault equals her best World Championship result, since she finished second in the WTCS Grand Final in Edmonton at the end of August 2021, already at an Olympic distance.
Behind Duffy, young French Emma Lombardi, the under-23 world champion who is just 21 in Edmonton, impressed by finishing fourth just ten seconds behind Duffy.
Among the men, Leo Berger finished third behind British vice-champion Alex Yi, ahead of New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, the bronze medalist in Tokyo last August. Norwegian Olympic champion Christian Blumenfelt is skipping the Olympic distances to focus on the long-distance.
In Yokohama, the French made a good group shot, with Pierre Le Curie fifth and Dorian Konincks sixth. Vincent Lewis, world champion in 2019 and 2020, did not finish racing in Japan.
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