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Saint-Quentin weighs in to celebrate boxing
The French Federation of Boxing organised a collective relay for fans of the discipline in Saint-Quentin. The city’s boxing club, which is genuine local and national institution, owes its renown to emblematic figures such as the Thomas/Frénois family. This group of four men represented the French national team on several occasions and over several generations. The collective relay captain Jérôme Thomas, a bronze and then silver medallist at the Sydney and then Athens Games, led this relay alongside around twenty other torchbearers. Among them were his brothers Cyril Thomas, a French champion and then featherweight EBU European champion, as well as Guillaume and Philippe Frénois, also boxers and key figures in the city’s sporting scene.
Other faces from the sport were also represented, including Bernard Delarue, a former professional boxer and coach, for whom boxing is more than just a leisure activity and has become a veritable school of life. Morad Maizou and Marceau Pourrier, two professional boxers, were also present, as was Charlotte Bonneterre, a club official, sportswoman in Saint-Quentin and volunteer for the 2024 Paris Games.
Olympians, Paralympians and members of the general public carry the Torch
Clara Bastos was the first torchbearer on Wednesday morning in Château-Thierry. The schoolteacher, athletics enthusiast, pole vaulter and 100-metres hurdler at the town’s club kicked off proceedings just before 9 AM. Elite athletes also lit up the area throughout the day, especially in Soissons thanks to the presence of Erwann Le Pechoux, a foil swordsman, four times world champion and team Olympic champion alongside Maxime Pauty, Enzo Lefort and Julien Mertine. Para-triathlete Cédric Denuzière, who is French champion in the PTS3 category and who will be taking part in his first Paralympic Games in August in Paris, closed the celebrations in Laon in the middle of the afternoon. Armenian shooter Elmira Karapetyan, a pistol shooting world champion in 2023 in Brazil, carried the Olympic Torch in Villers-Cotterêts.
At the end of the day in Saint-Quentin, two sportspeople separated by almost 75 years carried out the last torch kiss before the cauldron was lit. On the cusp of his 100th birthday, Félix Fievez, a regional cross-country legend, the first veterans champion in the Aisne in 1977 and marathon Olympic champion in Melbourne in 1956, passed on the Olympic Torch to Émilie Machut, a member of the Frenck kickboxing committee and several times French champion as well as European champion, so that she could light the cauldron at the celebration venue. It was a wonderful image that showcased all the generations of sportspeople to bring this symbolic day to a close.
As on each day, many members of the general public with inspiring stories to tell took part in the celebrations. In Laon, there was Marie Delatour, French para-triathlon champion in the PTS4 category, and Julie Roggemoan, who plays in the women’s rugby championship and mixed league, as well as for the French police’s rugby team. Maxime Cattier was cheered on by the crowds in Monampteuil. This table tennis enthusiast is a coach for his club and does his very utmost to take the young people he trains to the very highest level. Jules Laporte, a forerunner in adapted rowing and French champion in the J16 event combining disabled and able-bodied athletes in 2023, carried the Olympic Torch in Saint-Quentin.
Tomorrow it will be Thursday 18th July, meaning it is the 60th stage of the Olympic Torch Relay’s tour of France. It will be stopping off in the Oise area, at the gateway to the Île-de-France region. The convoy will pass through Compiègne and in front of its mansion, a former royal and imperial residence, before heading to Beauvais for the celebrations at the end of the day.
