Latest news with #Nationale
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
French lawmakers to vote on assisted dying bill
French lawmakers will today vote on a bill to legalize assisted dying, one of a number of similar legislative efforts across Europe. The Assemblée Nationale has debated the measure for a week, though even if it passes, it will need to be approved by France's upper house. Britain, too, is considering its own assisted dying bill, while various forms of the practice are now legal in at least six other European countries. France took an unusual approach to devising its bill, randomly selecting a diverse array of 184 citizens for a four-month nationwide convention: 'Rather than creating division, the range of backgrounds became a strength,' RFI noted.
Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Big names, big calves and ‘Les eléphants' — France's end-of-term bunfight
Fans of promotion and relegation are in for a treat over the next month. France has commenced its end-of-season fête of play-offs: weekend after weekend of quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and matchs d'accession. The fluidity has begun. Let us start where amateur meets professional. On Sunday, Niort triumphed over Langon to secure their place in Nationale, the third tier of French rugby. The Niortais are towards the west, just under an hour's drive from La Rochelle, and they will rise up a level with Rennes Étudiants Club (REC), who beat them in the Nationale 2 final. The restoration of REC to the third tier — they have a five-year plan to reach Pro D2 — adds a Breton accoutrement to the sport's upper echelons, following
Scotsman
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
The story of ski racing comes full circle at Crans-Montana
When the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships come to the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana in 2027, the sport of ski racing will be returning home, writes Roger Cox Sign up to our Scotsman Rural News - A weekly of the Hay's Way tour of Scotland emailed direct to you. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It's a warm, breezy spring evening in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, and on the sun-drenched terrace outside Bar Néa, the tables are packed. In this prime spot beside the Place d'Ycoor, the town's main square, the clientele ranges from snappily dressed hommes d'affaires tapping away at laptops and well-heeled retired couples basking in the sunshine to younger and much louder groups of skiers and snowboarders, evidently just down from the hill. Looking out over it all is a large digital clock, about eight feet high, counting down the days to 1 February 2027, when Crans-Montana will play host to the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. I'm here to meet Pierre-Henri Mainetti, head of sales and marketing for the resort, and, with a couple of locally brewed beers and a piste map on the table between us, he outlines the various changes taking place in anticipation of this major event. 'The most significant change directly relating to the World Championships,' he says, pointing to the map, 'will be a newly constructed arrival stadium here, at the bottom of the men's Downhill course, the Nationale. In addition, we are also putting snowmaking equipment in place so we can guarantee the event can go ahead.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Switzerland's Franjo Von Allmen competes in the men's downhill event at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in Crans-Montana on 22 February 2025 | AFP via Getty Images There are changes afoot further up the mountain, too. To skier's left of the Nationale piste, Mainetti says, just a few hundred metres down from the top of the Nationale Express chairlift, a 'small village area' will be created, from which spectators will be able to watch the racers as they come powering past the Cry d'Er lift station. The events making up the 2027 World Championships will actually be held on two different courses. Starting just below the Cry d'Er station, at an altitude of 2,210m, the Mont Lachaux course will host the women's events (Downhill, Super-G, Slalom and Team Combined), as well as the men's Slalom events. However, it's the Nationale – the course that will host the men's Downhill and Super-G events – that many ski tourists will seek to tick off their bucket lists. The men's Super-G course begins at around the same altitude as the Mont Lachaux course, and the starting points for both can be accessed from the Cry d'Er station. To get the full Nationale experience, however, it's necessary to take the Bellalui lift (sponsored by Prada, natch) further up the mountain, to an altitude of 2,543m. Due to the ongoing construction works around the arrival stadium the very last section of the Nationale course is currently closed, but from this lofty starting point it's still possible to ski the vast majority of this thigh-burning, 3.8km long rollercoaster, and to get a sense of how the various different sections link together. Marco Odermatt of Team Switzerland in action during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Men's Downhill on February 22, 2025 in Crans Montana, Switzerland. | Getty Images After a tricky, slightly off-camber opening section called Dévers de Bellalui (literally 'the Tilt of Bellalui'), the course cuts left and drops down steeply past the Cry d'Er station, before following an imposing cliff band to skier's right. There's then an undulating flatter section – Plat des Houles ('The Flat of the Waves') – after which the course passes under the Nationale Express chairlift before dropping steeply to the left at Mur de Mélèzes ('Larch Wall'). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This sudden dip enables skiers to hit the next, tree-lined section – Bosses de la Forêt – with as much velocity as they feel comfortable with. Professional racers will reach speeds of around 120kph here; recreational skiers, by contrast, might prefer to make more leisurely progress and enjoy the jaw-dropping views across the valley towards the distant Matterhorn and Dent Blanche. Then it's on to the course's closing section: a swift right-left zig-zag, one last jump to test tired legs, a final right turn and then the finish line where, in February 2027, with the newly completed stadium packed with fans, the atmosphere should be electric. Supporters wave Swiss flags in the finish area during the men's downhill event at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in Crans-Montana on 22 February, 2025. | AFP via Getty Images In a sense, when the World Championships come to Crans-Montana in 2027, the sport of ski racing will be returning home. In his 2022 book Around the World in 50 Slopes, British ski journalist Patrick Thorne points out that the first ever organised ski race was held here back in 1911. 'Mountain holidays pioneer Henry Lunn,' he writes, 'had been searching for a location where you could ski on a relatively constant pitch, without too many turns, to avoid falling', and at Crans-Montana he found what he was looking for. On 6 January, with no ski lifts to rely on, competitors hiked for six hours up to the hut at Wildstrubel (2,791m). Then, at 10am the following day they raced over a mostly downhill course with a couple of uphill sections. Cecil Hopkinson won in a time of 61 minutes, and was awarded the Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup, donated by Field Marshal Earl Roberts of Kandahar. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Lunn moved the race to Mürren the following year, but these days it's still possible to ski the rambling 12km Kandahar run named after the race all the way from the Plaine Morte glacier at 2,927m to the bottom of the Barzettes lift, 1,417m below. No six-hour hike required.
CBC
23-02-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Marco Odermatt extends World Cup overall and super-G lead, fronting 1-2 Swiss finish
It was just a 1-2 result for the stellar Swiss men's ski team Sunday instead of a full podium sweep. Marco Odermatt edged Alexis Monney by 0.28 seconds to thrill the noisy home fans and win a World Cup super-G one day after they were second and third, respectively, behind their teammate Franjo von Allmen in a downhill. Von Allmen placed seventh Sunday, leaving the lower step of the podium to Dominik Paris of Italy, who trailed 0.39 behind yet another masterful run by Odermatt. Odermatt, the gold medallist in super-G at the world championships this month, extended his lead in the World Cup overall and super-G standings. The 27-year-old Swiss star's 100 race points padded what already looks an unbeatable lead in the overall standings with one month left in the season that ends with races at Sun Valley, Idaho. The three-time defending champion is 500 ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen, who does not race downhill or super-G, and 605 clear of Swiss teammate Loic Meillard. Odermatt's 45th career World Cup win, already sixth on the all-time men's list topped by Ingemar Stenmark's 86, was his 15th in super-G. It came on the Nationale slope at Crans-Montana that will stage the next world championships in 2027. He started wearing bib No. 15 and his winning run was the fifth change of lead in a compelling race. It might have been the sixth change but the No. 11 starter, Norwegian prospect Fredrik Moeller, skied out when unbalanced after landing the big jump near the finish of a fast run. "It was very cool to have another win here," Odermatt told Swiss broadcaster RTS. "Normally with bib 15 it's not optimal. It wasn't a normal race, I think." WATCH | Von Allmen captures downhill gold on Saturday: World champion Franjo Von Allmen leads Swiss World Cup downhill sweep on home snow 23 hours ago Duration 3:05 Despite the overcast weather conditions, race speeds were comparable to Saturday's downhill in the sunshine. The fastest racer was Mattia Casse, the fifth-placed Italian, who was clocked exceeding 125 kilometres per hour. The men's World Cup moves on to Slovenia next weekend for a giant slalom and slalom at Kranjska Gora. Kristoffersen has six races left this season in giant slalom and slalom, and Meillard also races in super-G. However, with Odermatt strong in giant slalom and speed events, the giant Crystal Globe trophy could be all-but decided on Saturday.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Odermatt edges Monney to win a World Cup super-G in another 1-2 for dominant Swiss men's ski team
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — It was just a 1-2 result for the stellar Swiss men's ski team Sunday instead of a full podium sweep. Marco Odermatt edged Alexis Monney by 0.28 seconds to thrill the noisy home fans and win a World Cup super-G one day after they were second and third, respectively, behind their teammate Franjo von Allmen in a downhill. Von Allmen placed seventh Sunday, leaving the lower step of the podium to Dominik Paris of Italy, who trailed 0.39 behind yet another masterful run by Odermatt. The result was unofficial with low-ranked racers yet to start. Odermatt, the gold medalist in super-G at the world championships this month, extended his lead in the World Cup overall and super-G standings. The 27-year-old Swiss star's 100 race points padded what already looks an unbeatable lead in the overall standings with one month left in the season. The three-time defending champion is 500 ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen, who does not race downhill or super-G. Odermatt's 45th career World Cup win — already sixth on the all-time men's list topped by Ingemar Stenmark's 86 — was his 15th in super-G. It came on the Nationale slope at Crans-Montana that will stage the next world championships in 2027. He started wearing bib No. 15 and his winning run was the fifth change of lead in a compelling race. It might have been the sixth change but the No. 11 starter, Norwegian prospect Fredrik Moeller, skied out when unbalanced after landing the big jump near the finish of a fast run. Despite the overcast weather conditions, race speeds were comparable to Saturday's downhill in the sunshine. The fastest racer was Mattia Casse, the fifth-placed Italian, who was clocked exceeding 125 kph (77 mph). The men's World Cup moves on to Slovenia next weekend for a giant slalom and slalom at Kranjska Gora. ___
