Like every day from Monday to Friday, discover the essence of Gard’s sports news in a few bits of information.

Nimes Olympic

Back to the 16th? It has been a long time since Nîmes Olympique thrilled its supporters in the Coupe de France. Eliminated in the 32nd final last season in Toulouse (L2) 4-1, the Crocodiles were also released in the 32nd final, but this time in Costières by OGC Nice (L1), 1-3 in 2020-21. We must therefore go back to the 2019-20 financial year to see the NO in the round of 16. At that time, Bernard Blaquart’s players, with a renewed squad, had collapsed 5-0 in Dijon. If the Bompard version of Nîmes happened to qualify against Grenoble, they would have to wait until the end of the weekend to find their opponent, as the draw is scheduled for Sunday at 8pm before the last poster of the weekend Lille – Troyes. The draw will take place on the premises of beIN Sports, the official broadcaster of the competition with France Télévisions, and will be broadcast live on beIN with free and open access on the channel’s website and social networks. The full draw will be made by Paris FC striker Clara Matéo and Thierry Omeyer, former goalkeeper of the French handball team, now general manager of Paris-Saint-Germain handball. The eighth finals will be played on January 21 and 22.

Bobichon in Laval. The former Crocodile, who left for Angers in 2019, never managed to win at SCO (20th in Ligue 1). In three seasons he played only 50 games there for two goals and three assists. Loaned to AS Nancy (L2) last season, the born Bagnols-sur-Cèze did not fit into the plans of his coach Gérald Baticle, nor of Abdel Bouhazama, his successor. Under these circumstances, Antonin Bobichon is giving a new direction to his career by committing to the Lavallois Stadium (15th in Ligue 2) until June 2024. The Mayenne no longer participates in the Coupe de France, it is Tuesday that the Gardois can make its debut with the ride from Laval to Saint-Étienne.

Kanyan’s death. He is a 1970s football figure who has just passed away. Marc Case Kanyan has played most of his career in Corsica. First with Gazelec in Ajaccio, then with SC Bastia, with whom he played in the final of the Coupe de France in 1972, he lost to Marseille. The French striker left the Isle of Beauty in December 1973 for Nîmes Olympique in exchange for the departure of Jacky Vergnes to Bastia. In a season and a half, he played 59 games with the Crocodiles and scored 19 goals. He is also the top scorer in Nîmes for the 1974–75 season with 11 goals. In December 1975 he returned to Gazelec Ajaccio for two seasons. After his football career, he returned to New Caledonia, his native island, where he entered politics. Marc Kanyan turned 80 years old.

The president of Nemausus 2013 sanctioned. The opening game at the Antonin stadium will be remembered as a fiasco. Among other things, there was the pitch deteriorating as the minutes went by, the supporters not being able to get inside in time to see the Nîmes Olympique – Guingamp game start and then, to close the evening, the Crocodiles bowed down to Frédéric Bompard’s goal premiere. To make matters worse, a fight broke out in the stands. It involved a spectator of the president of the 2013 Nemausus supporters group, Cyril Roure. The latter communicated to announce that he had been sanctioned with a one-year commercial stadium ban: “I assumed I hit that person first. As I tell you, I assume and will explain the exact course of this evening to the police during my summons. Today, the club just imposed a one-year commercial stadium ban on me. Many will say that it is deserved and many others that it is not. I have no choice but to accept it. The Nemausus group will live without me for a year‘ he wrote on his Facebook page.

OAC

We take the same and start again. No new face at Friday’s morning practice, despite the desire for offensive reinforcements expressed by Oaciens leaders. Since the resumption after the winter break, no new player has been tested, even though the club management is still working on the subject. She may be waiting for a decision on her financial leeway after her appeal to the DNCG. ‘A good striker from Nationale 2 costs at least 4,000 euros per month’, complains a good friend of Oacienne’s management. The Alesian club has also made a habit of announcing its new recruits at the beginning of the week so as not to “disturb” the group on the eve of a game. For example, the group of players that will travel to Louhans-Cuiseaux tomorrow evening will strangely enough resemble the one that closed the year 2022. The long-term injured Fofana, Abdoulaye Diaby and Lenny Houelche are not included. Salvation of the Blues and Whites may come from the rise of the young guard exemplified by Théo Dengerma and Souleymane Diaby. Although the two men would have to start the encounter again on the substitution bench. While the public believes in a “remontada”, Hakim Malek’s men have taken three points in Saône-et-Loire, while their leaders will try to win back 5 on January 12 against the financial policeman of French football.

The likely composition of the OAC against Louhans-Cuiseaux: Moreau – Assoumin, Iafrate, Zogba, Djabou – Peyrard, Dabo, Jérémy Balmy, Ben Nasr – Mahamat, Abelinti.

Tennis

Bonzi in the final. The tennis player from Nîmes seems unstoppable this week: he has just qualified for the final of the Pune tournament, also called “Tata Open Maharashtra”. To get there, Benjamin Bonzi consecutively knocked out Taiwanese Tseng Chun-hsin, Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (seed No. 3), Serbian Filip Krajinovic (seed No. 6) and today, in the semifinals, he dealt with the Dutchman Botic Van de Zandschulp (seeded nr. 2) in three sets 7-6, 6-7 and 6-1. De Gardois (50th player in the world) will compete in the final tomorrow (13:00) against Bataaf Tallon Grepes (76th player in the world). The Pune tournament takes place in India and is part of the ATP 250 circuit. It is played on a hard surface.