For their first match, the Blues atomized Finland in preparation for the Olympic Games, Saturday (129-50).
The French women’s basketball team put on a show for its first preparation match for the Paris Olympic Games (July 26-August 11), against a weak Finland side swept aside (129-50) on Saturday in Mouilleron-le-Captif (Vendée).
Due to the unavailability of the teams involved in the Olympic tournament or more consistent ones, the Blues are carrying out their first two trial runs after three weeks of preparation against a second-rank opponent, who they will meet again on Monday at the Vendéspace.
But at least they played from start to finish with the seriousness demanded by Jean-Aimé Toupane, despite a gap acquired at the end of the first quarter (33-15, 69-23 at half-time) after a blow accelerator in the last two minutes (8-0).
They came close, for two units, to the record for points scored in a match by a French team (131-35 against Tunisia at the 2022 World Cup), but the coach is undoubtedly reassured, after this demonstration, about the physical state troops at the end of a start of preparation mainly focused on land work, necessary to reach the final in Paris in a month and a half, the stated objective.
Fauthoux is back
Her players managed to maintain a sustained pace during the 40 minutes, thanks to the numerous rotations: apart from the leader Romane Bernies (5 minutes), the 13 other players played between 11 and 21 minutes.
Toupane, who will reduce her group from 18 to 15 players after the second match against the Finns (then to 12 and three substitutes for the Olympics no later than July 8), had left the leaders Marie Pardon and Pauline Astier in the stands as well as the interiors Ana Tadic and Marie-Paule Foppossi.
Marine Fauthoux (5 pts, 7 assists and 2 interceptions in 14 minutes) played her first match at the front after her herniated disc operation in February which forced her to undertake a time trial to participate in the OJ. Inside, the promising Dominique Malonga (18 years old, 1.98 m) finished as the match’s top scorer (25 pts and 5 rebounds).
