Games bring ITER and neighbours together

It was only 8:30 a.m., last Saturday 17 September, but already the Vinon-sur-Verdon sports facilities were buzzing with activity.  Behind the big inflatable arch with the logos of the ITER Games sponsors, many of the participants were warming up for the cross country run or the soccer, volleyball and tennis matches, while other were queueing up to get their medical certificate. 

 

A little after 9:00 a.m. the games began and close to 250 participants, a mix of people working on the ITER project and residents of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance or Vinon-sur-Verdon, teamed up, with colleagues or with friends, to compete in a number of friendly matches.

 

With the help of the Vinon Durance Sports Club, which had recruited more than 50 volunteers to coordinate the matches, every aspect of the organization went smoothly and after an intensive morning all competitors and their families, about 400 people all together, were invited to a well-deserved lunch on a shady meadow near the sports facilities. 

 

The afternoon was dedicated to a much calmer activity, pétanque, which lent itself well to a warm afternoon under the burning southern French sun. More than 80 participants, from absolute beginners to real aces, competed in triplets under the plane trees of the Vinon village square until the winners of each activity were designated at the award ceremony which closed this first edition of the ITER Games.

 

The ITER Games were not about winning though, but about participating together, meeting new people and having fun and in those terms the Games were a real success, even if no records were broken.