June 15, 2022 at 3:37 p.m. by Dolorès CHARLES
Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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From July 1 to 10, 2022, Nantes will host the first edition of the Breton Games. The opportunity to highlight the 5 historical departments of the region and Breton disciplines such as Gaelic football or puck.
This is the event of the summer in Nantes: the first edition of the Breton Games! From Breton puck to Gaelic football, around fifteen disciplines will be represented from July 1 to 10, 2022, in the city center of Nantes. The games village will be set up in Cours Saint-André. To see, among other things, tug of war, throwing a sheaf of straw… A whole program! The public will also be able to attend demonstrations of gouren or Breton wrestling in the courtyard of the Château des Ducs, and 2,000 runners are expected for the strides of Brittany (13.5 km in Nantes to the sound of the Bagadoù).
Gaelic football
There will also be Gaelic football matches, a booming sport, at the Michel-Lecointre stadium. It’s a mixture of football and rugby (to XV) straight from Ireland. Esteban Sanchez visited the club of Don Bosco, champion of Brittany in the discipline, to find out more about the tournament and its organization.
The explanations of Basile Talbot: “The teams are made up of the 5 departments of historic Brittany (Loire-Atlantique, Morbihan, Finistère, Côtes-d’Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine). We have also added a team of natives, excluding historic Brittany, to have 6 teams, so that it is easier for the organization of the matches… In France, we do not have the infrastructures that we can find in Ireland, we play on football or rugby pitches. The matches are played 9 against 9 to have the same proportion of players on the field. This game at 9 is extremely recent, before we played 11 against 11, we readjusted that three or four years ago to have the same proportions as the Irish.
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Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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A coaching team created at Don Bosco
Don Bosco’s club has made good progress in recent years both sportingly and logistically. César Priou the trainer: “for the first time the club was champion of Brittany this year, this reflects the progress that the club has been able to make in the 4-5 years since we moved to the Don Bosco site. When I started in 2015, we trained at the Parc de la Roseraie, near Beaujoire, on stabilized ground, which were not necessarily ideal conditions… A coaching team has also been in place for 3-4 years, they are also players but they have managed to structure themselves, this allows them to train or manage the training session from time to time, they have a rotation that works quite well, that’s what shows our progress over the last few seasons.”
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Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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Club rivalry
These games are a competition, which looks like the Olympic Games. The coach of the Gaelic Football club Don Bosco, champion of Brittany, talks about the rivalry between the different clubs in the west. According to Cesar Priou, “for several years, we were always the 3rd team in the championship, it was really Rennes and Liffré who were fighting for victory… they are our main competitors. With Rennes, there may be this little rivalry that you can find in football, but it’s still a rivalry on the pitch., there is no problem outside, we get along very well. These are players that you can meet through the Brittany selection, it contributes to the good atmosphere.”
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Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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The Breton puck
Also in the spotlight during these games: Breton wrestling and boules, tug of war and of course the puck. The Rezéen club was appointed to host the Breton shuffleboard events, and its president René Lauray believes in the chances of his team : “They will have to qualify anyway either on June 19 (Sunday) or on July 2 at the galley site. I hope that we will have qualified teams within our club. We have very good teams, and if they are in good shape, that day for the qualifying phases, which is already one thing, and then on the day of the final, it will be possible and playable. Our players regularly take part in competitions, especially in summer in Ile et Vilaine. Almost every weekend, we have teams competing.”
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Credit: Stephen Sanchez
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The Breton Games will take place from July 1 to 10 in the city center of Nantes. For Gaelic football, the qualifying matches will take place on July 9, and the final stages on Sunday July 10, at the Michel-Lecointre stadium. For the Breton shuffleboard tournament, matches on July 9 and July 10 at the Robinière stadium in Rezé. Different selections will take place from July 2 to 8, 2022 in Nantes, in the different disciplines present at the Breton Games.
sports and culture
Alongside sporting events, more cultural events are planned – concerts, festoù-noz, conferences… More than 100,000 people are expected for this popular festival.
The Strides of Brittany July 3: a 13.5 km trail that will leave Nantes city center to the sound of bagadoù and Celtic circles!
The fest-noz at the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany Saturday July 9 with Annie Ebrel and Nolùen Le Buhé, the duo Pichard Vincendeau and the Kreiz Breizh Akademi #8.
A karaoke in Breton ! From Georges Brassens to Storlok, from Manu Chao to Angèle and from Jean-Luc Roudaut to Abba, rediscover your favorite artists from a new angle!
All information about https://jeuxdebretagne.bzh/
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