French hockey is on the crest of a wave right now, and Les Bleuets – the young Blues – are making history by winning promotion to the top division of the U18 World Championship for the first time. An impressive performance in Bled, Slovenia, saw Romain Guibert’s squad wrap up top spot in the group with a game to spare thanks to a late winner over Norway. Enzo Guebey, a defenceman who plays his junior hockey in Geneva, Switzerland, got the vital marker in the last second, lifting the French out of reach of closest rival Kazakhstan. A 5-0 loss to the Kazakhs in Thursday’s dead rubber did nothing to deflate the euphoria around the team. A morale-boosting warm-up win over Germany set the tone, and France repeated that success with a 4-2 victory in the opening game. Next came Denmark, and the same scoreline again. Hungary caused a scare before going down 6-3 and other results in the group meant that defeating Norway was enough to secure the gold. “Of course, we are very proud, and very happy,” said team manager Christine Duchamp. “Today we didn’t finish quite how we would wish, but this has been a historic tournament for us.”
