The second day of the Paris Grand Slam was a super Sunday for French judo fans with 11 French Olympic champions on hand to meet and greet the public
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The second day of the Paris Grand Slam was a super Sunday for French judo fans with 11 French Olympic champions on hand to meet and greet the public.
But on the mats, it was a more mixed international affair. In the men’s under 81kg category, a single waza-ari gave Uzbekistan’s Shaxod Sobirov victory in the final against Russia’s Sergey Ryabov.
It was a closely contested match too in the men’s under 90kg class, with Georgia’s Varlem Lipaterliani getting the better of Frenchman Alexandre Iddir.
But the home crowd had a bit more to celebrate as France’s Cyrille Maret over Brazil’s Rafael Buzacarini. A yuko und settled the score in their under 100kg category match-up.
And in the 100kilo and above category in the absence of France’s world champion Teddy Riner, Japan’s Hisayoshi Harasawa took the spoils after defeating Brazil’s David Moura by ippon.
France’s 2012 Olympic medalist Audrey Tcheumeo recorded her first victory in a year and enthused about her relief as she beat Japan’s Ruika Sato on penalties in their under 78kg clash.
There was more for home fans to celebrate as France’s European Champion Emilie Andeol also showed her class as she beat Germany’s Fransizka Konitz by ippon in the over 78kg category.
In the under 70kg, the same move saw gold go to Japan’s Haruka Tachimoto beat Germany’s Laura Vargas Koch by ippon.