In March 2022, the French Rowing Team came to train at the Isle Verte Sports Centre in Soustons. We had the chance to interview Bastien Tabourier, a native of Soustons, and now in charge of the Pôle France in Lyon and bronze medallist in the men’s lightweight quadruple skulls at the 2006 World Championships.
In the South West you are far from everything but then, at the same time, you don’t need to move because you feel so at home.
The objective of the course
The French team gets together every six weeks for a fortnight to begin preparations and put together the crews with a view to the selections for international competitions starting in May.
The lake’s strengths
- There is no competition on the water since there are no motor boats.
- The second strength lies in the lake’s design with a straight course stretching for 4.5 km.
- and then in the markers which allow us to clock up regular time trials with a brand new finish tower.
The sports centre’s strengths
It features a large weight training hall and a large medical service. The rooms have been recently renovated and are spacious with extra-large beds for very tall athletes. The meals are excellent with fine local produce; but I am not the most objective person to talk about this. We really enjoy a very warm welcome here! I shouldn’t say that because if I do the crowds will be flocking in!
THE OBJECTIVE
The objective is to qualify as many boats as possible in 2023 as we will try to qualify all our hulls in the pre-Olympic year. In 2024, touching wood, we hope to achieve the best possible results. We won 2 medals in Tokyo and hope to do better with three, maybe four medals.