Tom Laperche won the Route du Rhum in record time while Carlos Alcaraz finally triumphed in the Masters 1000 in Paris. Finally, Lens was unable to get back on its feet, knocked down by OM, a few days after the humiliation in the Champions League.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 10:56 Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 11:14

The sporting events that you shouldn't miss during the weekend: here is the France 24 sports recap.

Route du Rhum: Laperche triumphs

As he approached the finish buoy, he let his joy burst forth for a long time, contrasting with his usual reserve. Masterful since the gun went off in Saint-Malo, Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) won the prestigious Route du Rhum on the night of Saturday to Sunday, in his first participation and by shattering the transatlantic record.

The 29-year-old skipper crossed the line in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) at 10:31 p.m. local time, or 3:31 a.m. Sunday in Paris, after 6 days 13 hours and 27 minutes at sea, improving by six hours the reference time established by Charles Caudrelier in 2022.

“It’s a huge victory, it’s my dream race, when I started sailing if there was one thing I wanted to win, it was the Route du Rhum,” Tom Laperche said on the pontoons, his eyes shining with emotion.

The Breton sailor, who had taken control from the early hours at the Cap Fréhel buoy, completed the entire transatlantic race in the lead - with the exception of a few hours on Wednesday during which Thomas Coville (Sodebo), on a more southern route, was geographically closer to the finish - and brilliantly negotiated the numerous weather transitions.

Reduced by the breakage of his foils on the route, Thomas Coville held on until the end to retain his second place on Sunday at the finish of the Route du Rhum in Guadeloupe, ahead of the courageous Louis Burton (Armand Thiery) from Saint-Malo.

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Alcaraz's winning return to Paris

Never successful at the Masters 1000 in Paris since his debut, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (3rd in the world) won his first trophy in the tournament in the French capital after his victory on Sunday against the American Ben Shelton (4th).

"I never gave up, despite painful defeats. With my team we always said 'try again'", rejoiced after his 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 victory, the 23-year-old Spaniard, who received the trophy from the hands of German legend Boris Becker, first winner of the tournament in 1986.

Alcaraz's upset history with the end-of-year indoor tournament began in 2021 when, at 18, he was knocked out in the round of 16 by Hugo Gaston in the cauldron of Bercy, the former venue of the tournament, bubbling with pleasure for the Frenchman.

Then, he could not do better than a quarter-final in 2022. Until Sunday, when he succeeded David Ferrer, the last Spaniard to have won the title in Paris (2012).

Since his return from injury which deprived him of Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, the young Spaniard has been in full swing. He won his fifth title of the season in Paris, the second in a row indoors after the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna at the end of October.

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The Blues face Fiji

In the North group, put under pressure by Ireland's impressive improved victory against Argentina (42-12), marked by a hat-trick from fullback Hugo Keenan, France regained the lead with a victory without trembling against Fiji (54-17).

The blue domination was total, everywhere with power tries first (Gros, penalty, Falatea), before the backs took advantage of the spaces left by the Fijians without a second wind.

The Blues can congratulate themselves on a good performance in defense until the hour mark (40-3), for the first time from assistant coach Geoffrey Doumayrou, but deplore another major injury for an executive, fly-half Romain Ntamack, hit in the shoulder.

Next stop, South Africa on November 14.

Basketball: Gabby Williams and Marine Johannès will team up

Freshly victorious in the WNBA with the Golden State Valkyries, Gabby Williams and Marine Johannès, player of the New York Liberty, will compete together, from January 2027, in the American 3x3 basketball league. With Laces BC, they will try to add a new line to their list of achievements.

Unrivaled is a 3x3 basketball league which will begin its third season. The objective is to attract the best players in the world for this tournament to be played in the off-season.

F1: Mercedes crowned constructor champion

British F1 driver Lando Norris, world champion in 2025, imposed his McLaren with mastery on Sunday at the Brazilian Grand Prix, partly in the rain, a breathtaking race which offered Mercedes the constructors' world title.

The numerous racing exploits on the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, one of the most legendary of the season, are also to the credit of the Red Bulls of quadruple Dutch world champion Max Verstappen and Frenchman Isack Hadjar, second and third.

With three Grands Prix remaining at the end of the season (Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi), the Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) consolidates his title of 2026 world champion, won in Mexico last weekend, with 390 points, thanks to a fifth place in Brazil, behind his British teammate George Russell, fourth at the finish of the 71 laps. Mercedes now has enough points in the provisional constructors' standings (652) to be assured of the title of world champion before the last three Grands Prix, assuming that those in the Gulf take place depending on the security situation in the Middle East.

“It took us a few years to get back to the top (...). Few teams can do it,” rejoiced the boss of the German team, Toto Wolff, about this ninth world title, the first since 2021.

Hopeful Celia Gery, European cyclo-cross champion

The mark of great champions is to be comfortable on all terrains. Already crowned French road champion last June, Célia Géry won the U23 European cyclo-cross championships. Huge favorite after her coronation in 2024 and her 2nd place last year, she won ahead of two other French women on the Zeddam circuit (Netherlands).

She is ahead of Lison Desprez who finishes 9 seconds behind, and Amandine Muller who completes the podium 1'12 behind the FDJ United -Suez runner.

Celia Gery will not, however, have the opportunity to show off her jersey this season, the winner of the Flèche Brabançonne ends her season there because she must have an operation on her iliac artery.

OM pushes Lens

Four days after the humiliation against Como (9-1), RC Lens showed a better face against OM but conceded a third consecutive defeat (2-1), Sunday at the end of the 10th day of Ligue 1, against Marseille who continue.

Lensois president Joseph Oughourlian was expecting “a reaction” after the bankruptcy of an entire club on Wednesday. And if the Sang et Or were punished from the start by Amine Gouiri and especially by a terrible restart error, Yannick Cahuzac's players were able to quickly get back into the game thanks to Florian Thauvin.

Read alsoChampions League: Lens suffers a historic defeat against Como

Above all, they showed a much more dignified face than during Wednesday's rout to win back a public still traumatized by this debacle. But the Marseillais, authors of a game that was not necessarily convincing, killed Lensoise's hopes of victory at the end of the match thanks to young newcomer Keyliane Abdallah.

With this new success, the fifth in a row in the championship, OM continues its crazy rise in the rankings. Relegated after the last break, OM are now in 4th place, two points off the podium. Already defeated in Lille on the last day, Lens fell to 11th place (13 pts).

England: Arsenal laughing, City crying

Manchester City lost to poorly ranked Nottingham Forest (3-1) on Saturday, their third defeat in a row in the Premier League, a rout which opens up an avenue for leader Arsenal.

The English champion, earlier winner of Hull (1-0), is now six points ahead of his Mancunian runner-up after ten days. Arsenal were content with a minimalist victory against Hull (1-0), without really flaring, nor ever being really worried either.

City (2nd, 21 pts) is going through a mini-existential crisis in the championship: its seven inaugural victories have been followed by three consecutive losses, including those against Aston Villa and Brighton.

The one against Nottingham hurts even more, because the Midlands Reds were relegated at kick-off. They had not scored a single goal this season at their City Ground in the league either.

Spain: Barça overthrow Atlético

Trailing and seriously upset, FC Barcelona, ​​double reigning Spanish champion, overthrew Atlético Madrid on Sunday (2-1) thanks to a double from the electric Fermin Lopez, and retains its first place in La Liga, threatened by Real's good run.

Atlético (3rd, 28 points), which had eliminated the Catalan giant in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League last season, had nevertheless seen itself settling on the throne for a good half hour, before cracking in the second half against Barcelona's domination.

Like all other men's and women's first and second division matches of the weekend, the match was interrupted to pay tribute to Tenerife striker Jesus de Miguel, who died on Tuesday after a violent collision with Andorra goalkeeper Jesus Owono.

Italy: Lazio at the top

Lazio Rome will spend the international break at the top of the Italian Championship after their draw in Naples (1-1) on Sunday, but are only one point ahead of Inter Milan, winner of Como (2-0).

After eleven days, Lazio is still undefeated and continues to surprise (themselves). She even left the Diego-Armando-Maradona stadium frustrated, because she led thanks to Davide Frattesi (26th) and dominated Napoli, lacking confidence. But an own goal from Alfonso Pedraza (48th) brought the two teams back to a tie.

With 29 points out of a maximum of 33, his team, which had won its previous six Serie A matches, made the best start to the season in its history, but it saw Inter (2nd, 28 pts) and AS Roma (3rd, 27 pts), winner of Sassuolo (3-0) coming back on their heels on Saturday.

Inter Milan, for their part, brought Como back to earth, which remained on six consecutive victories (4 in the league, 2 in the Champions League), including a historic demonstration in Lens (9-1) on Wednesday. The ambitious Lombard club was stunned in seven minutes by the reigning Italian champions, first by Francesco Pio Esposito (12th), then by Marcus Thuram (19th) who celebrated his return to the French team with his sixth goal of the season.

Como fell to 5th place in Serie A, overwhelmed by AC Milan, winner earlier at Genoa (2-1), three days after its defeat in the Europa League at home against Ferencvaros (2-0). Juventus Turin, unable to string together two victories in a row since the 2nd day, is moving ever further away from the leading roles: led twice by Fiorentina, despite being in a delicate position (15th, 9 pts), it snatched a draw (2-2) and remains 7th but is now eleven points behind the leader.

Germany: status quo on the Bundesliga podium

Bayern and Borussia Dortmund won on Saturday afternoon, respectively in Mainz (2-1) and against Elversberg (2-1), a status quo at the top of the Bundesliga on the evening of the 9th day, before the international window.

With 21 points on the clock, the two behemoths of German football share the lead in the standings, with Bayern ahead of BVB thanks to a general goal difference clearly in its favor (+20 against +9).

Behind the leading duo, RB Leipzig took third place on the podium, thanks to its large victory on home turf against Augsburg, three days after its home defeat against Manchester City (3-2) in C1.

Read alsoNew list of the Blues: Mbappé and Tchouaméni back, first call-up for Pablo Pagis

Zinedine Zidane unveiled, on Friday, the new list of players for the France team who will play in the matches to reach the quarter-finals of the Nations League, against Turkey and Italy. We find there in particular Kylian Mbappé and Aurélien Tchouaméni, recovered from their injuries. Pablo Pagis, Paris FC striker, was called up for the first time.

Streamer Clem Qui Court concluded his “25 Hours Running” charity ultra-trail in the Pyrenees on Saturday, bringing in 1.5 million euros for the Rêves association. Followed live on Twitch and YouTube, the 145 km race in backyard format ended with the victory of trail runner Théo Detienne.

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