Athletics. Why the international meeting of Sotteville-lès

Since 1987, every year in July, the international athletics meeting of Sotteville-lès-Rouen (Seine-Maritime) has taken place at the Jean Adret stadium. However, this year, the event will not be held. Instead of this essential stage of the Pro Athlé Tour, a “sporty and popular” 10 km race will be offered during the fall. Here’s why.

The decision was made on Tuesday, October 7: this year, high-level athletes will have to do without the international meeting in Sotteville. The event takes place every year, in the warmer months, on the athletics track of the Jean Adret stadium, and it is part of the most prestigious category of athletics meetings organized at the European level, the “Outdoor Premium Meeting” of the European Athletics Association.

In a statement, the Metropolis Rouen Normandy, manager of the track since 2024, expressed that a large program of work is underway to renovate the track, “in order to allow the equipment to be approved by the World Athletics Federation and, more generally, to support the legitimate ambitions of the Stade Sottevillais 76 and the development of athletics on our territory.”

These works, started on March 9, amounting to a budget of 2.6 million euros, were originally scheduled to be completed by July 7, the planned date for the 2026 edition of the International Athletics Meeting.

But the construction was delayed due to the discovery of asbestos in the stadium’s networks: “The asbestos removal operation and the associated regulatory procedures require a slippage of the operation’s schedule,” specifies the statement from the Metropolis.

“The various constraints (international calendar, organization of an event of this magnitude) do not allow for another date in 2026 to host the Meeting,” the Metropolis Rouen Normandy said in a statement on April 7, 2026.

Athletics enthusiasts who gather in Sotteville every year to attend the meeting are thus left deprived. And while nothing can replace the event, the Mayor (PS) of Rouen and candidate for the presidency of the Metropolis, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the Mayor (PS) of Sotteville-lès-Rouen, Alexis Ragache, and the President of the Stade Sottevillais 76, Maxime Thommerel, have announced “a sporty and popular event” organized on November 1, the 10 km of Sotteville.

This new event, open to all audiences, will allow runners of all levels to tread the track of the Jean Adret stadium, the grand finale of this “urban foot race challenge.” It will also be a good opportunity “to officially inaugurate the new track,” freshly completed.

“It is proposed to launch a citizen consultation from here on to pay tribute to women’s athletics and give the track a name suitable for this objective,” concludes the statement from the Metropolis.