“There should actually have been two of them,” Cédric Taymans, the coach of the elite Judo Wallonia-Brussels, who accompanies him to the United Arab Emirates, told Belga. “Loïs Petit should also have participated, but she injured her hand and was forced to withdraw. The others (Editor’s note: Jorre Verstraeten, Gabriella Willems,?) prefer training at the moment and will no longer fight in competition before the start of next year, she comes here to make the most of it, that is to say to try to win a medal. In a Grand Slam, it would be a very good result.
As for Judo Vlaanderen, where Dirk Van Tichelt has just been appointed new head coach, this Grand Slam tournament is also not attracting much interest. The priorities are elsewhere at the moment.
“We didn’t really have any candidates for this tournament,” Koen Sleeckx, the technical director, explained to Belga. “Matthias Casse is on vacation, Mina Libeer is recovering from her knee injury and Toma Nikiforov is about to become a father for the second time. There will still be a Grand Slam in Tokyo in December, but it is not certain that we let’s not have representatives either. We will go to Japan, but rather to participate in a preparation course for the year 2025. We will, however, be present at the U23 European Championships (in Poland in mid-November, editor’s note). .”
