No French +78kg today, but two -78kg to try their luck in a hearty category in Baku. Océane Zatchi Bi was surprised by the effective kneeling tai-otoshi of the very strong Italian Alice Bellandi, world medalist in Doha and world n°2. As for Chloé Buttigieg, after an effective victory against a Kazakh, she was the victim of the very strong ground work of the former Japanese world champion Mami Umeki. There is still work to do to rise to the level of a very dense top 20.
The curiosity of the French public was particularly towards the boys, with “strong potential” lined up in -90kg and -100kg. In +100kg, our winner of the Franco Games, Khamzat Saparbayev was taken from the start by a rudimentary and effective yoko sutemi from an Azeri fighter ranked 78th in the world, as for Amadou Meite, he took the Russian Tamerlan Bashaev as an outsider. of work and succumbed to his morote-seoi-nage on his knees. With two French representatives competing for the Games, the -90kg battle was exciting, it ended sadly, not only with the failure of both, but also with a clearly serious injury suffered by Maxime-Gael Ngayap-Hambou, opposed to the first round to an Austrian close to the medal today, Thomas Scharfetter (5th), making full progress this year. At the golden score, the Austrian countered the Frenchman’s arm climb with a little ura-nage which gave him waza-ari… and in the process caught the leg of Maxim-Gael, obviously well hit. As for Alexis Matthieu, our top 10 in the world since his third place in the Masters, he also came out in his first fight, beaten on the golden score in penalties by the Belgian Sami Chouchi, European medalist in 2022.
Two double world champions on the mat
Remaining in the race was the -100kg Aurélien Diesse. Our former junior European champion -90kg, long stopped by numerous injuries, finally opted definitively for the category above last year, and the encouraging results quickly became evident, notably a fine fifth place at the Grand Slam. from Tokyo. This time, he will do better by reaching the podium, while showing judo qualities which give a lot of hope. He first took out the Colombian Franscico Balanta on sumi-gaeshi, also displaying new dispositions on the ground – thank you Guillaume Fort in the French team and Jean-Pierre Gibert at the club – and the best came just after with a resounding victory against the Spaniard Sherazadishvili, double world champion, by brilliantly attacking him with a golden score on his big o-soto-gari to the right in unilateral guard. The final of the table would reveal his little weakness of the day, the melee in “bear grip” imposed on him from the start by the powerful Aaron Fara, another Austrian to fear, finalist of two Grand Slams in March , for a victory in Antalya. But the commission ended up changing this ippon into shido for direct grab – because we know that you must first go through a grab point on the opposing jacket before going for the melee – and Aurélien Diesse took this second chance also took full force by planting the Austrian in the following sequence on a well-concluded o-soto-makikomi on the ground. A beautiful pass of arms to follow and which would lead to nice exchanges on the carpet and behind the scenes between the two men, with a smile. Opponents, but comrades above all, it’s judo, and everything we love.
It was already the quarter-finals, serious things. The Frenchman faced Georgian big cat Ilia Sulamanidze (to be discovered in L’Esprit du Judo n°105), a twenty-two year old world number one who has already fought three times for a senior world medal and won one. Our representative fought an equal fight, often shaking the Georgian, but he was surprised once again by a hand-to-hand grab, this time legal according to the refereeing. A waza-ari which fell in the last seconds of the fight time and eliminated him from the race for gold.
A flattering podium
To win the medal you had to beat another opponent… no less than the Portuguese Jorge Fonseca, also a double world champion. A Dantesque battle between two explosives in which the Portuguese planted the first banderillas with very strong attacks in o-soto-gari and ko-uchi-gari, but without scoring. And the Portuguese was going to exhaust himself in his attacks which did not compromise the beautiful posture of Aurélien Diesse, always willing to confront him and dance in front of him with his little contacts in ko-soto-gari, his very judo calls. After three minutes of golden score, he went to pick up the Portuguese on his stomach for a perfect side reversal, and immobilized him for the count. A bronze medal which places him here on a “young” podium with Ilia Sulamanidze in gold ahead of the Russian junior world medalist Matvey Kanikovskiy, a boy who lined up after this youth world championship (where he had already been beaten by the Georgian), five finals in five trips to Grand Slams for three victories! Third alongside him, Zelym Kotsoiev, an Azerbaijani world number 2 and bronze medalist at the last two world championships. An expensive and precious place, for which he will have had to exclude two double world champions. To be confirmed obviously, it’s the game, but a benchmark performance.
The Return of the Valkyrie
Information to remember on the French side, it is the great German Anna-Maria Wagner who emerges victorious from this big tournament in -78kg, dominating Mami Umeki and Alice Bellandi. A return to the ropes after the post-Olympic hesitation (3rd) and her 2021 world title. And it is the great Beatriz Souza who is also doing well for Brazil with gold snatched in particular (in the semi-final) to the Japanese comeback Sara Asahina, 2018 and 2021 world champion.
Among the men, it is Russia, hidden under the neutral barrier, which finishes strong with the very convincing victory of the -90kg, now twenty-six years old, Mikhail Igolnikov, who won the three Grand Slams in which he came out. . In -100kg, we have already mentioned the new Russian -100kg destined to hurt, Matvey Kanikovskiy, in silver today. And in heavyweight, we witnessed a very big showdown between the two Russians, Tamerlan Bashaev, the winner of Teddy Riner at the Games, Inal Tasoev, the “co-winner” of the world championships against Teddy Riner again, in the conditions we know, and the two Georgians Gela Zaalishvili, Guram Tushishvili.
Tamerlan Bashaev was nicely countered by Guram Tushishvili on a uki-waza that his opponent read well. He was lifted off the ground and thrown neatly onto his back. But the little, mobile Russian placed a magnificent sode-tsuri-komi-goshi on his knees for bronze on Gela Zaalishvili. In the final, Guram Tushishvili found Inal Tasoev, superb all day with his fluid standing judo and sharp floor routines. And it was the Russian who prevailed over… uchi-mata gaeshi, the controversial movement that he executed this time in complete control. The Georgian protested, even leaving the mat without greeting before returning… The IFJ can take its share of the blame in this unwelcome annoyance, legitimate or not. The rule followed to arbitrate this movement is still not clarified.
In the meantime, Russia, quite unofficially because the “neutral” fighters are not classified, finished ahead of Azerbaijan’s three gold medals with the same number of titles and more medals of honor.
2023-09-24 19:28:12
#Baku #Grand #Slam #day #Day #Diesse
