Philippe Wakim, foil in hand in his fencing club in Paris Nord. (Photo provided by the athlete)
The fourth Lebanese athlete to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games, Lebanese fencer Philippe Wakim, fell by a hair's breadth in the first round of the individual foil tournament on Monday morning at the Grand Palais in Paris. He was beaten by Taiwanese Yi-Tung Chen by a score of 15 touches to 13.
In foil, one of the three disciplines of fencing, the match is played in three periods of three minutes, with a one-minute break at each interruption. The winner is the player who has scored the most hits at the end of regulation time or the first to have scored 15 hits.
After a very lively first round which ended with the score at 12-all between the two, the Taiwanese got the better of his opponent by chaining two consecutive hits which gave him the victory.
The disappointment is huge for the 24-year-old who grew up in France, near Bordeaux. If he won, the double champion of Lebanon could have offered himself a prestigious fight in the second round against the reigning Olympic champion, the French Enzo Lefort.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
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