| PORTRAITS: |
May 2004 |
| LOIC THEBAULT:
SQUASH L’HERMINE Loic Thébault is the owner of the Squash L’Hermine, in Rennes, where the European Teams Championship 2004 pools are played, and where everybody meet, drunk, chatted, plotted, and one of the organisers of the event. He has been involved in squash since 1981, but in this club for 8 years. With his ex wife Laurence Chevalier, he has made this place a magic enterprise for regular and competition “crème de la crème” players. “4 years ago, I put the club up for this event, but I was told that the club was a bit small for such an event. Then, in 2001, we organised the European Club Championships, and it was a great success. When Aix en Provence withdrew from the organisation of the Euro 2004, I was skiing. I received a phone call on my mobile from Bertrand Bonnefoy, from the FFSR who asked me if I wanted to welcome the event in the club. I told him “I need to think about it”, switched off, paused for 3 seconds, and dialled back. “OK” I said. We have been working on this event for a year now, and the last month has been extremely hard. The day before the beginning of the competion was the worst day, with the arrival of all the teams and personnel, but everything run smoothly. I know that the 100 volunteers will remember this event as long as they’ll live," said Loic. "It was beautiful, a lot of preparation, but the result worth it. And to the people from the squash circuit who came to me to congratulate me on the quality of the event, I say 'this should be the norm’. If we want to expand our sport to the next level, that’s the way to treat the athletes who work very hard to entertain the audience." He must have done something right, as EVERYBODY held the Rennes European Championship as on the best squash event ever! |
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