With the objective of fourteen medals for fourteen weight categories – seven for men, as many for women – the French judo team must not be idle at the European Championships in Montpellier, from November 3 to 5.
Fortunately, the Tricolores did not miss their start. Of the seven fighters lined up on the first day of competition, six are competing for a medal. Only the unfortunate Maxime Gobert only made up the numbers by falling from the start in the first round in the -66 kg category. Two French people even won gold: Shirine Boukli (-48 kg) and Luka Mkheidze (-60 kg). Amandine Buchard (- 52 kg) will try to imitate them.
First in the running, Shirine Boukli, achieved the feat of becoming triple European champion, dominating the Portuguese Catarina Costa in the final with a magnificent ippon during the golden score. ” It was not easy. These are European Championships, a competition where you must not make any mistakes. There needs to be a balance between being fully committed and remaining cautious, she analyzed. The goal is to win in the end, no matter how. I didn’t give up until the end. »
In the presence of her fan club in the stands, the native of the neighboring department, Gard, experienced a day full of emotions, winning her last two fights by golden score, including a close semi-final against the Spaniard Mireia Lapuerta Comas. She beat her on hansoku make, disqualification of her opponent by three penalties to two. “It’s huge, I was there in 2014 as a volunteer [during the first European Championships in Montpellier], I didn’t think I would succeed like that in judo,” she reacted. It’s me who is on the carpet today and I am very happy to have brought this beautiful title home, with my whole family. »
Vice-world champion in May in Doha, Shirine Boukli asserts herself as one of the spearheads of the French team. Currently second in the world rankings, she proved that she had digested her disappointment at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and her elimination in the first round while she had high hopes of medals. In Paris, in 2024, she will have a desire for revenge: “It’s a little taste of what could potentially happen this summer. Compared to being an Olympic champion, it’s nothing. If I am selected and I become one, it will be magnificent. »
Luka Mkheidze impressive
The second, perhaps the most impressive of the Tricolores this Friday, is called Luka Mkheidze, surprising Olympic bronze medalist in Japan. After a difficult year, marked by a serious knee injury, this Georgian refugee who arrived in France as a teenager is no longer a surprise. He mastered his subject by dominating in turn the Ukrainian Artem Lesiuk, the Italian Andrea Carlino and the neutral judoka, Ramazan Abdulaev. In the final, Mkheidze dismissed another Ukrainian, Dilshot Khalmatov.
Thanks to this success, his first gold medal in a major championship for the man who was also European vice-champion in 2021, the Paris Saint-Germain judoka scores valuable points in the fight for selection for the Olympic Games from Paris.
But nothing is over yet because his young competitor Romain Valadier Picard also struck the spirits by beating the reigning world champion, Francisco Garrigos, and winning his first medal in a major senior championship, bronze, winner at golden score from Belgian Jorre Verstraeten. The level of adversity encountered is in fact an important criterion of the selection process designed by the French Judo Federation (FFJDA).
Throughout the day, the public at the Sud Arena de France were able to improve their peripheral vision by sometimes having to follow up to three fights involving a Tricolor on the four tatami mats installed in the center of the room.
The quarter-finals of Romain Valadier Picard (- 60 kg), Amandine Buchard (- 52 kg) and Sarah Léonie Cysique (- 57 kg) took place jointly with strong drama. When in particular the young Valadier Picard, 21, eliminates Garrigos at the end of the golden score. Or when Buchard, Olympic vice-champion, gets rid of a great client at the last minute, the German Mascha Ballhaus.
A few minutes later, again with two semi-finals – that of Buchard and Valadier Picard – and a repechage fight – of Walide Khyar – again monopolize the attention of the French spectators, each until the golden score. This was ultimately fatal to Romain Valadier Picard who lost to penalties, the opposite scenario of his quarter.
Amandine Buchard is holding her position for the moment. The regular on international podiums (including four world bronze medals) won the right to compete in a third European final by dominating the British Chelsie Giles. Seven years ago, already in Montpellier, she was European vice-champion in -48 kg. She is preparing to face Kosovar Distria Krasniqi.
Walide Khyar (- 66 kg) and Sarah Léonie Cysique will compete for a bronze medal to try to further improve the French harvest during this first day of the European Championships.