The European champions and Olympic medalists are in Abu Dhabi as credible candidates for a first global coronation this Sunday. Both have their eyes on Paris 2024. This world championship is a little more than a big training session.
Don’t get the wrong objective. When everyone talks to you about the Olympic Games at home, you have to admit that these World Championships are falling like a hair in the soup two months before the meeting of a lifetime. In a typical season, this would be the climax of the year for Amandine Buchard and Luka Mkheidze. Both delivered high-quality performances and filled their medal cabinets well, including a European title in November in Montpellier.
This World Cup was not obligatory on the agenda of French judokas. Almost the entire Olympic men’s group, and four out of seven girls who will be at the Olympics, are heading to the gates of the desert. Apart from the Russians and the Japanese, the big nations send proud teams to the Mubadala Arena. In the frantic race for points and the best possible ranking before Paris, a championship with 2,000 points to the winner is an almost unmissable event. It’s a good way to add to your list of achievements and head into summer. Behind, there are two months to recover and get back on track. A choice of opportunity for Amandine Buchard and Luka Mkheidze, credible candidates for a Marseillaise in Abu Dhabi.
On the road to Amandine Buchard there will not be the Japanese Uta Abe, the ultra-favorite of the Olympics. She only showed her judogi once in 2024: in Antalya, where she delivered an intimidating performance. The PSG judoka repeats that she pays attention to everyone. No fixation on the Olympic champion of less than 52 kilos. They won’t face each other before the Olympics, too bad: “Those who are absent are always wrong,” she insists. “I’m not trying to know what this or that competitor will do, I’m in my project. It was a good opportunity in my preparation, good training I’m going there to win, to get some bearings, to get feedback on what I’ve worked on, to see my physical form and that of my future opponents.
Mkheidze: “I’m going there to get information”
Luka Mkheidze will perhaps be able to measure himself against Ryuju Nagayama. The tiny Japanese, 1m56 tall, is also betting on discretion like the Japanese team, rather than the succession of tournaments, when the Olympics are approaching: “If I have the opportunity, I have to go and get him to make him doubt, to say I am here I am present Afterwards, he will have to fear me He is small, but the size does not really pose a problem to me. Normally, the Japanese are strong. don’t counter much but he does that too, he has this Eastern country side which makes him formidable.”
Luka Mkheidze during the Grand Slam in Paris, February 2, 2024. © EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
Apart from the Russian Ramazan Abdulaev, the entire world top 8 is traveling to the United Arab Emirates for this Olympic-style world championship in miniature. Buchard and Mkheidze will be seeded at the Olympics. This world championship can improve their lot by making them gain a few places. She is third and he is fourth. Not like them to get lost in calculations knowing that the number 1 seed will face the number 8 in the quarter-finals at the Olympics, the 2 the 7, the 3 the 6 and the 4 the 5.
At the end of this meeting in Abu Dhabi, we will not be far from drawing the tables for Paris 2024: “I am not going to calculate anything. I am committed to winning,” replies Buchard. Don’t count on them to keep a few cartridges. The two French people do not yet have their portrait in the Insep dojo, an honor reserved for world or Olympic champions. Member of the French senior team for more than 10 years, the under 52kg often repeats that she would like to have her face with that of her friends. “It’s an obsession but my obsession is to be Olympic champion above all. If I become world champion that will not interfere with my desire to be Olympic champion.”
“I don’t have a medal in the world championship, answers Mkheidze. I’m going there to get information, to get the medal. I’m not putting more pressure on myself with the points, I know that I’m in the eight to Paris”. A success would increase the label of favorite behind their backs at the Olympic Games. Abu Dhabi, a big bath before the ocean.
2024-05-18 21:41:12
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