Karate: Gard and Nîmes, strongholds of the discipline which organize the Coupe de France

Will you win a Cup again? On the sidelines of the traditional meeting at the start of the year (the Coupe de France southern zone of semi-contact and contact karate, organized at Parnasse), the Gard committee is ensuring, this weekend, the organization of the Coupe de France, 2024 edition.

''We never had this Cupexplains the president of the committee, Corinne Gouttenoire. But as this edition could not take place in Bourg-de-Péage, where it was planned this year, the French Federation thought of Nîmes.'' More than 400 competitors, in semi-contact karate (Saturday) and contact karate (Sunday), are expected in the Nîmes den.

''The Federation knows that it can go there with its eyes closed''

The Gard committee and Nîmes, strongholds of the discipline. ''It's a trust that there is towards ussays Corinne Gouttenoire, delighted. The president that I am is too much, too proud because I know that Mohamed Messadaoui (head of the National Arbitration Commission) has complete confidence in me and that the Federation can go there with its eyes closed. Provided, however, that I can do it. If I hadn't had Parnassus, this wouldn't have been possible. The Federation pays €3,900 per day.''

The Judo club of Gard and Camargue boxing in force

For two days, the Gard clubs will be able to compare themselves with the rest of France and showcase their know-how. ''In the department (Karate Villeneuve Les Angles must confirm his presence)there is the Gard Judo club, established for years, but also Camargue boxing (Le Grau-du-Roi / Aigues-Mortes), which has more than 130 members and which is rising very, very, very high''recalls the president, in office since 2018 and reappointed in 2020, for four years.

A job well done which, moreover, materialized in the obtaining, for the manager, of the silver medal for youth and sports and associative commitment, received on October 26 in Carcassonne during of the General Assembly of Occitanie: ''It is recognition of my work and my volunteering. Now I'm waiting for the Federation medal. But you know what “a woman in a man’s world” is, you have to ask (laughs).”