Archery: Olympic medalists Baptiste Addis and Jean-Charles Valladont, the return of heroes to Nîmes

Baptiste Addis, Jean-Charles Valladont et leurs médailles à leur retour à Nîmes, en septembre. MIDI LIBRE – E. DZ.

Six months after Paris, the two Olympic medallists from Nîmes will be shooting at home this weekend for a record 27th edition (1,240 entries) of the international tournament in Gard, the 4th round of the Indoor World Cup.

They had dropped by briefly at the beginning of September, during the sports and associations festival, during which they had multiplied smiles and selfies with a Nîmes public delighted to see two silver medals from the Paris Olympics up close. This time, Olympic vice-champions Baptiste Addis and Jean-Charles Valladont will be there all weekend, for the 27th edition of the Occitanie Nîmes archery tournament.

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The Gard event is the 4th round of the Indoor World Cup (18-metre shooting), after Lausanne, Luxembourg and Taipei, before Chicago and the final in Las Vegas. The sixteen best women and men in recurve (the Olympic discipline) and compound bows from the first five rounds will qualify to try to win the jackpot on 8 March.

Olivier Grillat: “Consolidate their position”

Addis (11th in the world) and Valladont (23rd) will have to shine on home soil to make it, even if the former could skip the American event in favour of a long training camp in the land of the morning calm and archery, South Korea. We're not there yet. And we are still far from the next Games in Los Angeles, in 2028. But according to Olivier Grillat, the sports director of their club, AC Nîmes, “the objective is already to consolidate their position and their domination in Europe”.

Europe in power ?

France is indeed continental team champion and, therefore, Olympic vice-champion, beaten in the final by Korea. “The short-term goal is to win individual medals in the adult category”, Addis, barely 18, who is doing well at home, recently told us: finalist in Nîmes in 2023, 8th finalist and best Frenchman in 2024. His mate Valladont, 35, has already claimed victory here in 2017 and 2009.

Without the South Koreans

Last year, it was the young Israeli Dror (then ranked 126th in the world, now 18th) and the Spanish Canales (9th, now 6th) who won (the Nîmes player Sebastian 4th women). In the absence of the South Koreans, who are held at home for a national training camp, the Europeans are expected. For your information, Addis will enter the competition at 12:45 p.m. on Friday, January 17, Valladont at 4 p.m. The return of the heroes.

Program: qualifying shootouts this Friday from 9 a.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Parnasse, Parc des Expos and Estanque; eliminations (from the 16th to the semi-finals) Saturday from 3:30 p.m. to 6:40 p.m.; youth finals on Sunday morning from 9am to 11:15am and the World Cup round from 1:30pm to 4pm at Parnasse.

Tickets: €10 adults, €5 under-16s for all three days.