Yes, Lille regained the lead in the French championship by beating a worrying PSG on Saturday before their Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Yes, the Danish Kasper Asgreen won the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, beating the defending champion, the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel in the sprint.
Yes, the French have achieved a historic double in the premier category of motorcycles, with the victory of Fabio Quartararo in the Grand Prix of Doha (Qatar), ahead of Johann Zarco, on Sunday.
Yes, the Roland-Garros tennis tournament could be postponed, hinted at sports minister Roxana Maracineanu.
But something else happened this weekend that you might have missed.
The three weekend lessons
- Your domination in France, you will ensure
The takeover is now clear: on the occasion of their third clash of the season, Brest inflicted a new correction on Metz during the quarter-final first leg of the Women’s Handball Champions League on Sunday (34-24). The two clubs have dominated the French scene for several years, but the experienced Messines had until then preserved their first place.
This season, the advantage has changed sides with two big wins in the league for Brest. The return match of the Champions League, next weekend, should be a formality and the Brestoises should play the Final 4 for the first time in their history (qualified in 2020, the Bretons had not played the last phase, canceled due to the pandemic).
The two teams will undoubtedly meet again this season, for the final of the French championship.
- The new rules, you will not forget
? Swiss Michael Schär (AG2R-Citroën) disqualified after being thrown from a can! It has been banned since April 1 … https://t.co/lDVBNxXZIn
Since 1er April, the International Cycling Union no longer laughs with the jets of canisters. Now cyclists can no longer swing them anywhere, but must dispose of them in specially marked areas. A change that the Swiss Michael Schär forgot during the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, which led to his disqualification. Enraged by a derailleur problem, the AG2R Citroën rider threw his can of rage, but in the direction of a few spectators. A gesture almost as old as cycling, but now banned. Hard time.
- Your entry into the tournament, you will heal
Eight tries registered, no points conceded: the XV of France walked for the first match of the Six Nations Women’s Tournament, Saturday night in Vannes (Morbihan). For the first of their three meetings (the Tournament has been simplified with two matches in the group stage and a classification match), the Blues have made short work of Wales (53-0), last of the Tournament in 2020 and already humiliated with an almost similar score last year (50-0).
The French women’s second game will take place in two weeks, in Ireland. It seems within the reach of the “Hungry”, promised to face the English in the final of this Tournament, scheduled for the same dates as the men’s table but which had been postponed due to the health crisis.
Woman of the Weekend: Ruth Chepngetich
World record in Istanbul! Ruth Chepngetich smashes the world half marathon record in 1:04:02. https://t.co/qQ7HC0LZM1
A great leap forward. Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich smashed the world record for the half marathon by winning the Istanbul event on Sunday. With a time of 1 h 4 min 2 s to cover the 21.097 5 km, she beat the previous mark of the Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh by almost 30 seconds.
World champion of the marathon in Doha in 2019, the 26-year-old athlete has the fourth world performance over 42.195 km, established in 2019. In recent months, she has especially improved her times on the half-distance: in November 2020, she had improved her personal best for the first time in 1 h 5 min 6 s. In recent years, long-distance records have been regularly broken, in particular thanks to innovations in running shoes.
The weekend image
After more than a year without a match, Lyon supporters were able to find the stands at Parc OL… to get vaccinated. Since Saturday and until the beginning of May, Olympique Lyonnais has made its stadium available for the vaccination campaign, with 9,000 people expected during the first three days, welcomed by club employees and partner companies. Student nurses and firefighters can sting forty people at the same time, in the lodges.
“When I see people who come to be vaccinated, who take pictures of the stadium at a time when everyone is suffering, it is a moment of satisfaction”, commented the president of the club, Jean-Michel Aulas. Tuesday, it will be the turn of the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, to open its doors to people with an appointment to be vaccinated.
The declaration of the weekend
“I deserve to be world number one”
Notice to contenders, the boss is she: Ashleigh Barty sent a clear message to her competitors with her victory in the Miami tennis tournament on Saturday. Roland-Garros winner in 2019, the Australian had had a white 2020, preferring to stay on the island-continent rather than lining up for the fall tournaments, including the US Open and Roland-Garros . She still remained in first place in the world ranking thanks to the points calculation rules set up by the organization of the women’s circuit.
“I didn’t play at all last year (…). So yes, I didn’t crash, but I couldn’t progress. There were girls who had the chance to improve their [classement], so I completely deserve my first place ”, she said after her victory in the final against Canada’s Bianca Andreescu.
The weekend number: 6
? ?? ??????? ?????????! ??? Explosion of joy in the changing rooms of Thomond Park after a historic victory f… https://t.co/drLrfjpIEn
Six years that Munster had not lost in the European Cup in its den at Thomond Park. At the end ” an almost perfect match “, According to the opening half of Stade Toulouse Romain Ntamack, the leaders of the Top 14 won 40-33 in the round of 16 of a continental competition upset due to the pandemic.
The Rouge et Noir will play the quarter-finals in Clermont next week, where they haven’t won for almost twenty years. The Auvergnats also signed a great performance by overthrowing in the last seconds the English Wasps (27-25) thanks to a try of the Japanese Kotaro Matsushima.
The adventure also continues for La Rochelle, Racing 92 and Union Bordeaux-Bègles, while it stops for Lyon, on defeat, and Toulon, which could not play its match due to cases of Covid in the workforce and was eliminated on the green carpet.