BEIJING, 17 April - France is focused on winning a fourth title in a row as they contest the men's team foil World Championships as part of the Beijing Olympic Games test event programme on Friday.

After victories in St Petersburg (RUS) in 2007, Turin (ITA) in 2006 and Leipzig (GER) in 2005, the French are looking to further haul in the record total of the former Soviet Union in the alltime medal table.

France currently has 12 victories, behind the Soviet Union's 14 gold, though the French have considerably more medals -- 28 (12 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze) compared to the Soviet's 14-3-5 record.

France goes into the competition in second ranked place, however, with the powerful German team of Dominik Behr, Richard Breutner, Peter Joppich and Benjamin Kleibrink ranked above them.

Twice the French have beaten the Germans in the final -- the last two competitions -- and again Brice Guyart and Erwan Lepechoux have a chance to keep their superiority over their great rivals, having been members of the previous winning teams -- Lepechoux being part of all three teams, and Guyart winning in 2005 and 2007.

If all goes to form the semi-finals are scheduled for a showdown between France and Italy, with the third ranked Italians in the bottom half of the bracket with France, leaving fourth ranked Japan in the top half with Germany.

Guyart was in a buoyant mood today after the training session at the venue, the Fencing Hall of the National Covention Center.

"I want to win. I want the French team to win, win the gold medal, of course," he said.

"For three years in a row we won the gold medal for World Championships, so why not this time?"

Surprise bronze medallists from a year ago, South Korea, are missing from this competition, but the hosts China, ranked 6th, have a chanse despite in the same part of the bracket as France, and will face Canada in their first match at 09:00 on Friday.

Competition continues during the day, with semi-finals scheduled for 14:00 and the final for 19:40.