BLOIS - Mikaël Devogelaere won the first French Grand Prix event in Blois with 1.520 on average. In the final, the Frenchman defeated Grégory Le Deventec 40-10 in 21 innings. The Soisson player was unleashed in this final match, leading 24-2 in 9 at the break and 30-2 in 12 innings moments later. His game was the best of the weekend and the third best of the games over 40 and 35 points following Cédric Melnytschenko's 40 in 15 innings against Vincent Lelièvre and Jean Reverchon's 35 in 18 innings.
The win was Mikaël Devogelaere's third in the French tournaments after Mâcon 2020 (1,532) and Lunel 2021 (1,367). In the qualifying round, he beat Jacky Justice with 1,842 and Thierry Roxo 35-34 with 1,060.
In Sunday's quarter-final against Jérôme Barbeillon, Devogelaere had a poor start and was 23-8 behind in 15 at the break. Devogelaere played for all he was worth, deviated from his usual routine and started playing faster (15-second average). That worked with a 7 run and then 8 in the 16th and 18th innings. He came back to 26-26. Jérôme Barbeillon continued to play well, but missed his match point.
In the semi-finals, Devogelaere beat the player in form at this tournament, Jean Reverchon, by a score of 40-35 in 27. Grégory Le Deventec (average 1.057) successively beat Kevin Vasseur with 1.346, Marc Boingneres with 1.129, Steve Dorard in the quarter-finals with 0.975 and Nathan Duriez in the semi-finals with 1.379.
Completing the podium are Jean Reverchon (1.407), who beat Jean-Christophe Roux in the qualifying round and then Vahit Kunt in the quarterfinals (winner against Gwendal Maréchal in the qualifying round with 35-26 in 19 rounds), and Nathan Duriez (1.117), who beat Cédric Melnytschenko in the quarterfinals and had the best series of the tournament with 10.
Jérôme Barbeillon (1.345) was 5th, Steve Dorard (0.964) 6th, Cédric Melnytschenko (1.088) 7th and Vahit Kunt (0.907) 8th.