Though the finals in the Marseillaise won't have any of our players in them, we do know that our own Xavier Thibaud and his team progressed to the eighth finals, putting him in the top sixteen out of almost 4600 teams in the competition.
This is the farthest an American citizen has ever progressed and we are happy to be basking in his success. Xavier, a resident of NYC and member of the New York Petanque Club, reports that he was proud the French press referred to him as "The American".
Xavier and his two teammates, Andre Lozano, and J.F. "Tichon" Hemon, both former world champions, won 10 games out of the 13 that will be played in this year's Marseillaise. An astounding feat! The score in their last game was 11-13, so close it could have gone either way!
We also report on the success of our other players in this, the largest tournament in the world. Alec Stone-Sweet tells us he made it to the 7th game before being converted to a tourist, and we are told that Ernesto Santos and Yngve Biltsted, LBNY, playing on one team, and Robert Pierre, playing with a team from his home town, Cagnes sur Mer, all made it to their second game, putting them in the top 50% of the teams in Parc Borely, Marseille.
For those who have followed the video stream of the games, it has been a fun week and a wonderful opportunity to see the great players of the world and imagine ourselves pointing and shooting with the best of them.
(photos courtesy of LBNY and Boulistenaute)
