The first International Petanque Tournament in Russia has finished. It was undoubtedly the most important and thrilling event in the Russian Petanque life so far.
By Tatiana of russian.petanque.org:
The tournament was held on 12 – 14 of December at the Buddy Petanque Club in Luzhniki, Moscow. 16 teams (doublettes) from different countries took part in the event. The players from France, Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Morocco, Israel and Russia were fighting for the first place.
The tournament was opened by V.Balachnichev, the vice-minister of the Russian State Sport Committee, and E.Ossokine, the president of the Russian Federation of Petanque. 
4 teams passed to the semi-finals – Finland, Germany, France and Russian juniors team (to the joy and happiness of all the Russians)!
The demi-finals games were the most exciting! The German team was loosing with the score 0-8 but they managed the game until the score 8-9, and even to 11-12. During the last game with the score of 11-12 there was a chance for the Germany to win (the French team had no boules left, but the Germans still had 5 boules), but they didn’t get these 2 points to win.
Of course the attention of the spectaculars was given to the game (Finland – Russia (juniors)). In the beginning of the game the juniors were the leaders (1-0,3-2). It was a long game (1h 35 min!) and very stressful. All the players were strongly fighting and had shown the high level of the game. But in the end the team from Finland won with the score of 13-10 in the demi-finals.
The teams of France and Finland were playing in the finals for the 1-st and the 2-nd place. The German team and the Russian juniors were playing for the 3-d and the 4-th place. Alexander Bauer (37 years, 19 years of Petanque experience) and Manfred Kuhn (36 years, 17 years of Petanque experience) were playing against out team (Pavel and Michail – 14 years both).
The French Players became the first. Bravo France! Jean-Pierre Jardinet and Michel Faurant became the best.
In the second place there was a team from Finland (Matti Torronen and Tuevo Kamunen).
The third place was taken by the team from Germany (Alexander Bauer and Marfred Kuhn).
The Russian Juniors team got the 4-th place. But it was a really long and strong fight. Bravo Pavel and Michail.
The best team prize was given to the Russian juniors team. The juniors were given the medals and diplomas approving this fact.
The Russian Federation of Petanque says its appreciations to the tournament organizers – to the Russian State Committee of Culture and Sport and to the French company - “Schneider Electric”;
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