Last weekend, the third and final day of the Women’s Torball N1 Challenge, the elite championship, took place in Quessoy (Côtes-d’Armor), where 10 clubs from all over France gathered.
This last day, full of suspense and twists, started with four clubs vying for the title: ANICES, the mid-season champion, Poitiers, the virtual leader of the first matches, “the machine” Toulouse, and the solid club of Décines.
The Nice players Sandrine, Emma, Angélique, and Marielle absolutely had to win all their matches to hope to secure a podium finish, or even better. They fought for those victories with exceptional honor and fighting spirit.
They wanted to pay tribute to their coach Mikael Maunier, who is retiring after seven seasons with the club.
Seven years building a strong women’s team with whom he shared everything. He now wishes to dedicate himself exclusively to his role as the coach of the French national teams.
The “poupoules” began the day by offering, under the gaze of François Dumont and accompanied by an emotional speech by President Sébastien Filippini, a collector’s jersey to their Coach, featuring the message “Thank you Mika, your poupoules.”
A jersey that they too wore during the Challenge day, to give themselves the strength to win everything, with the utmost commitment.
The matches held in Quessoy were the second part of the return championship.
The schedule was unbalanced between each team.
The suspense was total, giving officials a few gray hairs. The podium configuration changed eight times over the course of the day.
The Nice players, three matches from the end of this championship, were relegated to fourth place. A disappointment given their exceptional performance (100% victories).
The Nice players thought they would return without a medal to the Azurean capital. Indeed, they needed a loss from Poitiers to finish on the podium. A loss that the Poitiers team avoided by defeating Mulhouse in the last seconds of the match. The Poitiers team subsequently defeated Décines in the season’s final match.
Yes, but then the unexpected happened. Décines stumbled too, in the last seconds against Paris, who played a good match.
This defeat put Nice back on the third place of the podium!
The Nice team, watching the match, erupted with joy and went to celebrate their victory with the players who were stunned by the sequence of events.
The season resumes in September for the Nice players, with a strengthened team that will take over from the “poupoules” generation and a new staff. We wish them a good rest and congratulations!!
