Basketball, handball, volleyball, rugby… “Le Parisien” now proposes to announce to you, before each weekend, all the issues and events not to be missed in Île-de-France.
The match to go to: Metropolitans 92 – Asvel
BASKET. After a break due to the international break and the qualifying matches for the 2023 World Cup, the championship resumes its rights this weekend with a peak. Sunday, at the end of the day, Boulogne-Levallois welcomes the Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne of Tony Parker for a shock, the fight of the leaders that everyone awaits with impatience and greed. The two teams – which have with Monaco the most attractive squads in the championship – indeed occupy the head of the Betclic Elite with 15 wins and 6 losses.
But if the results are identical, the trajectories are different. If Vincent Collet’s troupe quickly settled at the top of the championship thanks to a series of 12 successes, they have slowed the pace since the start of 2022 with 5 defeats in 8 days. Asvel, the other French representative in the Euroleague, remains on 8 rank successes in the league.
This match will also be an opportunity to reunite with “old” acquaintances from the Ile-de-France region. Among them, Freddy Fauthoux, the former Boulogne-Levallois coach who is now TJ Parker’s right arm in Villeurbanne, and Victor Wembanyama. Considered a unique player, expected to take first place in the NBA Draft in 2023, the former kid from Nanterre (18 years old, 2.19m) has had a chaotic season due to numerous injuries. His return to Île-de-France is an event that cannot be missed.
Player to watch: Alexey Nalobin
VOLLEY. If he will be on the trip, the presence of Alexey Nalobin on the Nantes-Rezé field, Saturday evening during the 24th day of Ligue A, was still uncertain. The central Plessis-Robinson suffers – like 5 other players in the workforce – from the flu and has been bedridden for 3 days. But for the 32-year-old Russian player, playing might allow him to get out of a heavy and anxiety-provoking daily life since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. “He suffered the situation, explains Cédric Logeais, his coach. He is powerless once morest the decisions of Vladimir Putin. It’s difficult for him. Volleyball allows him to think regarding something else from time to time, but it’s not an easy situation. »
In support of the drama that the Ukrainians are going through, the Nantes-Rezé club is organizing a collection of donations and has offered the players of both teams to wear a special jersey with the inscription “No War” before the match. Alexey Nalobin would have agreed to put it on.
The poster: Stade Français – Stade Toulousain
RUGBY. We meet once once more ! Just three weeks following winning in extremis (28-29) in Toulouse – thanks to a penalty from Joris Segonds at the last second – during a match shifted from the Top 14 – Covid obliges -, Stade Français finds its rival Sunday evening for the duel of the Stadiums. Even if the time of the “clasico” seems over – when, in the early 2000s, the two clubs were fighting for the title – and both teams will be deprived of most of their internationals, this meeting remains an event in the Oval world.
The figure: 50,000
Like the number of runners who will set off on Sunday at 8 a.m. from Pont de Sully, on Île Saint-Louis, for the start of the Paris half-marathon. For these aficionados, the meeting marks the long-awaited start of the season on asphalt. This 21.1 km race allows Sunday runners to rub shoulders with – a few hectometres – international champions. For the most connected, an application will allow their loved ones to follow their exploits step by step. A nice program awaits them with the crossing of the Bois de Vincennes and the passage in front of many emblematic monuments of the capital: the Bastille, the Hôtel de Ville, the quays of the Seine, the Château de Vincennes or the Pont de Tolbiac.
The day before the start, Saturday, the runners who come to collect their bibs at the Grande Halle de la Villette will be able to challenge at 2 p.m., on the Hyundai stand, the adventurer Claude from Koh-Lanta and the SPOT robot. The latter, a sort of headless robotic dog, will also complete the last kilometer of the half Sunday with the winners.
The show of the weekend: Meeting Paris Indoor
ATHLETISME. Initially scheduled for January 22, the Indoor Paris Meeting had been postponed due to health constraints and the capping of gauges in the stadiums. The wait is finally over for athletics fans. The meeting will be held on Sunday in the full and packed Accor Arena.
The fifth edition promises to be a show with the presence of many French and international stars. For the athletes, this is the last opportunity to achieve the FFA minima for the world indoor championships in Belgrade (Serbia), which will be held from March 18 to 20.
Among the entrants, the Ile-de-France Pascal Martinot-Lagarde over 60 meters hurdles. A distance over which the unfortunate hero of the last Olympics, the decathlete Kévin Mayer, will also set off. Silver medalist at the Tokyo Games last summer, American pole vaulter Christopher Nilsen will also be present.
The program
ATHLETISME. Meeting Paris Indoorat the Accor Arena on Sunday, doors open at 5:30 p.m.
BASKET. Betclic Elite: Gravelines – NANTERRE (Friday, 8 p.m.); Le Mans – PARIS (Saturday, 8 p.m.): BOULOGNE – LEVALLOIS – ASVEL (Sunday, 7 p.m., Cerdan sports hall in Levallois).
HANDBALL. Starligue : Cesson-Rennes – CRETEIL (Saturday, 8 p.m.); Chambéry – PSG (Sunday, 5 p.m.). Proligue : Nice – IVRY (Friday, 8:30 p.m.); PONTAULT-COMBAULT – Besançon (Friday, 8:30 p.m., Espace Boisramé); TREMBLAY – MASSY (Friday, 8:30 p.m., sports hall).
ICE HOCKEY. Magnus League: Bordeaux – CERGY-PONTOISE (Friday, 8:15 p.m.).
RUGBY. Top 14 : Perpignan – RACING 92 (Saturday, 5 p.m.); STADE FRANCAIS – Stade Toulousain (Sunday, 9:05 p.m., Stade Jean-Bouin). National: MASSY – Aubenas (Saturday, 5 p.m., Stade Jules Ladoumègue); Albi – Suresnes (Saturday, 7 p.m.). Women’s Elite 1: Stade Toulousain – STADE FRANCAIS (Sunday, 1 p.m.); Rennes – BOBIGNY (Sunday, 3 p.m.).
PARIS HALF-MARATHON. Sunday at 8 am, departure from Pont de Sully.
VOLLEYBALL. League A: PARIS – Toulouse (Friday, 8 p.m., Salle Charpy); Nantes-Rezé – Le Plessis-Robinson (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.). Women’s A League: Marcq-en-Barœul – STADE FRANCAIS PARIS SAINT-CLOUD (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.).
