Nantes overwhelms London 173-95 at WFTDA European Regional Championships

Nantes Roller Derby closed Sunday in Namur with a 173-95 demolition of London, a 78-point statement that did more than add another win to the bracket. It showed Nantes could flatten a recognizable European opponent at the end of a demanding weekend and do it with enough authority to raise immediate questions about who wants to draw them next.

The separation was built in the way Nantes controlled the bout rather than in one isolated burst. A 78-point margin in roller derby usually points to the winning side getting out of the pack cleanly, cashing in on power-jam opportunities and keeping the other team from stringing together the kind of long scoring stretches that change a game’s tone. London never found that rhythm here, and Nantes kept the pressure high enough that the score never felt in doubt once the gap opened.

The result carried extra weight because it came on championship Sunday at the 2026 WFTDA European Regional Championships, a seeded bracket held June 12-14 at Centre Namurois des Sports Tabora in Namur, Belgium. WFTDA said 12 teams were in the European postseason field, with the tournament serving as a path to the 2026 WFTDA Championships in Malmö, Sweden. Nantes had already shown its ceiling earlier in the weekend, opening with a 151-92 win over Stockholm Roller Derby on June 12 and following with a 170-109 victory over Helsinki Roller Derby on June 13 before a 129-113 loss to Crime City Rollers later that day.

London arrived with its own resume intact, which made the final margin more telling. London opened by edging Lomme Roller Derby 145-137 on June 12, then beat Antwerp Roller Derby 120-90 on June 13 before running into a Nantes side that looked far more comfortable playing the pace and the pressure game. London’s one-day turnaround from a 30-point win to a 78-point defeat underscored how unforgiving bracket derby can be when the opposition can sustain pace and deny resets.

For host league Namur Roller Derby, the weekend was also a showcase moment at home. Founded in 2011 and described by WFTDA as Belgium’s biggest derby roller club, Namur brought one of the region’s top postseason events to its own venue, and Nantes used the stage to deliver the kind of performance that can reshape a team’s tournament reputation in one afternoon. A 173-point output in this setting is not just a number; it is the sort of result that marks a team as dangerous deep into the bracket.