2017 Tournament
The Ninth Annual International Petanque Tournament had players from France, Belgium, Texas and Louisiana.
Tournament Champions: Bernard Champey, former four times world champion from Ardeche France, placed first with his partner Colin Castille, a local businessman.
Second place: Placing second was the husband and wife team of Al and Arlette Guarisco (both of who are retired school teachers) from Thibodaux, representing the Swamp Petanque Club.
Third place: Thierry Amisse (furniture maker) and Rudy Vallée (a food chef) both from France, but now living in Austin Texas. They represent the French Legation and the Nelson Ranch Petanque Clubs respectively.
Fourth place: Placing fourth was the team of Tatiana Lusan, a PhD. microbiologist from Belarus in East Europe and Kevin Domingue, a local Lafayette civil engineer.
Fifth place: The defending fifth place local champions were Alex Hays and Austin Keller.
Sixth place: Local Lafayette team of Eric Wright and Thomas McCoy.
The games were delayed one day until Sunday by rain to allow the crushed granite courts to dry. A grand meal was held at Saint Street Inn on Saturday night for the participants who listened to an acoustic Cajun Trio.
On Friday, the games were opened by the following dignitaries March 28 by throwing out the first boules: Grégor Trumel, Consul general of France – New Orleans; Mme Olivia Lamy, Vice-Consule of France- New Orleans; Dr. Zoltan Gombos, honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic; Lafayette; Ben Berthelot, President and CEO, Lafayette Convention and Vistors’ Commission; and Phillip Gustin, International Trade Manager of Le Centre International de Lafayette, a division of Lafayette Consolidated Government.
The major sponsors of the event were:
- Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission
- Lafayette Consolidated Government – Parks and Recreation
- Obut – Premiere manufacturer of all things Petanque from France.
The following sponsors provided social capital to make the event a success:
- Lafayette Consolidated Government – Lafayette International Center
- CODOFIL – Council for the Development of French in Louisiana
- Springscript Digital Marketing Boutique
- Lowry’s Printing and Copying
- Saint Street Inn
Those staff working for the event were Deborah Amy and Dennis Sullivan (registrar and time keeper), Christophe Pilut (ranking and scoring); Angela LeBlanc and her son, Eric (food); Michael Barney (court preparation) and Mike LeBlanc (organizer).