However, the day before at the end of the afternoon, Éric Marchal, deputy mayor in charge of associative life, had contacted Lu Lich, president of the Marandais club since 1997, to tell him that a prefectural decree had been issued. which advised against, among other things, any sporting activity, both indoors and outdoors, due to atmospheric pollution with suspended particles. This triggering of the pollution episode management system began on Friday March 3 and ended the next day.
For the president of the club, “it was impossible to cancel this meeting on the eve of the tournament where some arrived from Paris, Pays de la Loire and New Aquitaine… It was a stressful blow”. The chosen one understood the situation well and recommendations were made before the start of the tournament on Saturday morning.
Without penalty
Jérôme Claveau, from the Marandais club and also one of the two referees (with Christophe Caquineau from Niort), declares: “We informed the participants as soon as they arrived with the possibility of withdrawing without penalty and, finally, everyone decided to hit the steering wheel. »
“Five disciplines are represented on nine courts. The advantage of badminton is that it is 99% self-arbitrating without conflict,” confides this enthusiast of the sport for forty years and who has been organizing meetings for thirty-five years.
The ALMB has 124 players of all ages. “A number in clear progression which had fallen during the pandemic”, explains the referee, before completing: “A general opinion, because the federation currently has 195,000 licensees when it had 191,000 before the Covid. » The results of the tournament are available on the Facebook page of the Amicale Laïque Marans Badminton.
