RONCHIN - The balk-line discipline 47/1 was still missing from his collection. In his 4th final at the French Masters in this game type, after 2015, 2016 and 2017, Willy Gérimont is the new French champion by dethroning Johann Petit, the title holder. With an overall average of 28.54, a best game of 50 average and a best run of 155, the player from Chartrain has the best statistics of this tournament. We have to go back to 1998 (Brest) to find a higher overall average, from Marc Massé with 33.16. Even of Louis Edelin's 7 national titles in 47/1, none reaches Willy Gérimont's average, so this is a very good performance!
But back to the present: the final had started well for Jean-François Florent with 51-21 in 2 innings, but the following innings were less enviable with 27 points in the next 5. Willy Gérimont was a steamroller, scoring 79-11-32-0-57 to reach the final score of 200 points and leave his opponent on 78. All eyes will be on them this weekend for the last title to be shared, that of the 47/2 balk-line game.
In the group stage, each of the eight participants played three matches as in free game. In group A, Jean-François Florent was unbeaten with 18.75, Brahim Djoubri is 2nd with 2 wins and 12.23, Johann Petit (11.65) and Emmanuel Lefranc (11.12) follow in the standings. In Group B, 3 players had 2 wins: Willy Gérimont has 30.11 overall, Nicolas Gérassimopoulos has one point ahead of Cédric Zoppi with 18.36 against 18.07 to reach the last four. Benoit Deziles-Legros lost all three games by 12.84.
The semi-finals were Willy Gérimont against Brahim Djoubri and Jean-François Florent against Nicolas Gérassimopoulos. These two games were in favor of the two men in form at the moment, Gérimont winning 200-106 in 8 vs Djoubri, Florent 200-122 in 13 vs Gérassimopoulos (3rd bronze medal for the Andernosian).
Willy Gérimont and Jean-François Florent have one more title race to go. Will either of them win their third title on Sunday?
