2016 IHF Male World Coach of the Year Didier Dinart has taken his French team to the place of his birth – Guadeloupe, the French overseas department which is part of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean – for two friendly matches against Olympic champions Denmark.
Dinart’s very first handball team was Asup, based in the north-west of Guadeloupe and on Tuesday, 5 June the whole squad left France, flying to the capital Pointe-à-Pitre.
Both Denmark (as hosts) and France (as title holders) are already-qualified for the 2019 IHF Men’s World Championship in Germany and Denmark and the two teams are sharing 10 days (5-15 June) on the island as part of the ‘Air Caribbean Cup Tournament’, which will feature two end-of-season friendly games scheduled at the Hall Paul Chonchon, Pointe-à-Pitre (Saturday 9 June, 20:00 hrs) and Regional Sports Palace Rivière des Pères, Basse-Terre (Wednesday 13 June, 20:00 hrs) and visits to schools and with young players.
Last year, Dinart was in Guadeloupe twice with the IHF reporting on his four-day visit in April where he was met by his mother Léonise at Pointe-à-Pitre airport along with some very special hand baggage: the recently-won IHF Men’s World Championship trophy. The trip saw the the former line player visiting the Front-de-Mer college in Lauricisque in Pointe-à-Pitre to discuss handball and his passion for the global sport with students as part of the ‘Corsair Hand Caribbean Tour’ – a partnership between the airline, the French Handball Federation and Dinart himself.
He returned again in June 2017 as part of the ‘2017 Corsair Hand Caribbean Tour’ with a global handball team of 16 megastars for a week to play matches, coach, conduct visits and inspire those to take up the sport or push for further excellence.
Back in 2015 Dinart visited Guadeloupe with Valentin Porte, Wesley Pardin, Melvyn Richardson and Patrice Annonay as the French coach aims to promote interest in handball in the region with regular high-profile visits.
Visits from French handball superstars can be traced back to 1992 where, ahead of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Daniel Costantini led his Pointe-à-Pitre team against Cuba. 22 years later, in 2014, Claude Onesta, with his then new assistant Dinart, once again faced Cuba, in Pointe-à-Pitre (37:19) and Lamentin on the nearby island of Martinique (44:23).
Photos: Stéphane Pillaud