At the Coubertin Stadium
Maxime, what feeling animates you after your defeat in the quarter-finals of the Mazars Challenge international de Paris (CIP)? Maxime Pauty: Honestly, I am disappointed and sad. It’s a childhood dream for me to win it and I wanted to do it. So I’m sad to have failed in this quarter-final, which didn’t come down to much. Now, with a little more perspective, I hadn’t managed to win a match since the start of the season, so it feels good to find a good level, adrenaline, good aggression. On that, I’m happy.
So you retain more of the positive than the negative…Yes. There was a mental switch. I really felt good in my bubble even though it’s the competition where it’s perhaps the hardest to be. I found myself again, in my fighting spirit, and on that mental level, there was really a lot of positive. Throughout the day, I think I managed my weak times well, which were quite short. The longest was in this quarter-final which I lost. At the beginning, there were refereeing decisions that I had difficulty understanding. They weren’t necessarily mistakes, but at that moment it closed me off and it took me too long to adapt to the referee. My opponent took the opportunity to take the lead by five touches and then I had to run after him. In vain unfortunately.
On the positive side, there is also this end of the match that you return against Enzo Lefort in the round of 16 (15-14)… Yes, mentally, these are always special matches. In terms of fencing, with Enzo, we know each other by heart. Although there, as he was a little injured, his game changed and it took me a while to adapt to that. But I managed, at one point, to become more aggressive again, more “mean”, to impose myself more.
He will be absent this Sunday for the team event…So it’s for my apple (smile). No, seriously, I’m happy to shoot when I wasn’t supposed to. I was thinking of relaxing after the individual but I will have to keep this lump in my stomach until tomorrow. We have a great team, we will give our all and I know that Enzo will give us strength. We will do everything to give the best possible performance.
Your coach told us that it would be a great opportunity to see the team function without its leader…Yes, Emeric (Clos) is a curious person so good for him. Now the team will always be stronger with Enzo, but it’s still strong without him. It’s up to us to show what we’ve got and personally, I’m very excited to shoot. We will have to take responsibility for everyone. This is where we will see what is best in this team.
