Felix LeBrun leads the Blues into the World Table Tennis Championship final, where he will face the Chinese Armada

Twenty-seven years of waiting. For the first time since 1997, the French men’s table tennis team will compete in the final of the World Team Championships. The winners from Taiwan (3-1) will play for the title against ten-time world champions China (afternoon), an irresistible Felix LeBrun’s Blues, in the semi-finals in Busan (South Korea) on Saturday 24 February. Paris time).

Tricolour, already guarantees a medal – matches for 3^E The place in this competition did not exist -, in the first match against Chih-Yuan Chuang, the world number 6 and winner of his two encounters, was guided by an excellent Felix LeBrun and 8-year-old Yun-Ju Lin.^E World, during the fourth decisive meeting.

The latter first got rid of the eldest of the LeBrun brothers, Alexis, which allowed Chinese Taipei — the name given to Taiwan in international sports competitions — to score one point each. An easy winner of 31^E World Cheng-Jui Cao (0 to 3 sets), Simon Gauzi provided the point needed to put the Blues back in front; It is up to Felix LeBrun to ensure qualification during the final meeting.

Qualifying for the third final in its history since 1948 and 1997, France will challenge world leaders China on Sunday, which defeated host nation South Korea (3-2) in the semi-finals. In 1997, during the World Championship in Manchester (United Kingdom), the French table tennis players, guided by Jean-Philippe Gatin – the last French world champion in 1993 – lost to the same Chinese favorite.

With ten consecutive world titles as a team, the Chinese armada promises to be a pinnacle that looks insurmountable for the Blues. But with its two events, led by the Lebrun brothers, the French team can no longer stop itself from dreaming of a historic first world title just months before the Paris Olympic Games. And in passing, for France’s revenge on China, after the Blues’ semi-final loss to the Chinese table tennis players on Friday.