March 7, 2006

Bol d'Or in Geneva - 25/26 Feb

This was the 32nd edition of the Bol d'Or (the Golden Bowl), organized by the Geneva Petanque Club, "la Genevoise".
You could call it a petanque marathon, because the format is very unique:
- 24 invited teams of 4 players (allowing one to rest)
- 23 consecutive games of 40 minutes
it lasted from Sat 2 pm till Sun 5:30 pm
It means each team get to play every other team once, and then the total points are counted.
Next to the reigning World and European champions and numerous French and Swiss teams, there were top teams from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

Our friend(*) Marco Foyot teamed up again with Pascal Miléi, Zvonko Radnic, and Jean-Michel Xisto) and they won for the second year in a row. Twenty-one wins, one tie, and one loss. 318 points for, 85 against.
For Marco, with different partners in the past, it was the 6th victory - the first time in 1985. Talking about a sport where age is not too relevant!
The Dutch team made it to a remarkable 8th place.

The 20th edition of the Mini Bol d'Or - for ladies - was played the week before. They call it "mini" because the format is more traditional, with pools, semi- and finals. No competition during the night. That was won by France Espoirs, with Tunisia second, and the (Swiss) Organizers team third. Also notable, Madagascar in 8th place.

(*) for new readers of this blog: Marco came twice to Florida, once in 2001 for several demonstrations, and once in 2003 for the first Petanque America Open.

You can see the full report, very well made (but in French only) at geneve-petanque.com. Go to "Résultats".

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