July 9, 2009

NY in Marseille

I was way too busy these days to report on this years' Marseillaise, but just heard that our very own New York player Xavier Thibaud made it all the way to 8th finals Wednesday. That means among the last 16 teams out of the almost 4600 at the start. Bravo!



He teamed up with Belgian buddies (and ex-World champions) Tichon Hémon and Dédé Lozano. Apparently it was a nerve wrecking game, against the 2007 French national team. They went from 11/7 to 11/11 but then saw the chance for a quarter final vanish at 13/11.

Other New Yorkers (we know of) who participated were Alec (reached 64th finals) and Ernesto & Yngve.

We look forward to see them all in action at the Open in Amelia Island.

You can follow today's finals live on France 3 (from 6:30am to 1:00pm EST).

Below is an interview of Xavier (in French) by the newspaper that organizes the annual event, called - of course - La Marseillaise:


3 comments:

Baby Nubbins said...

Congratulations Xavier! That is an amazing accomplishment.

-Jeff
Detroit Petanque Club

Aina R. said...

Got Beaten by a team Madagascar, i Heard

Anonymous said...

Sorry Aina, but you're wrong.. Madagascar did not beat Xavier, Madagascar lost to another team BEFORE Xavier.
Xavier lost to Mr. Bettoni and 2 French champions from 2007.
So, try to be a bit more positive as is Jeff (who is nicely congratulating him for his effort), instead of thrashing him.