French judokas narrowly failed against Japan in the final on Sunday at the World Judo Championships in Doha.
France came very close to repeating their Olympic Games feat. The French judokas, who had won gold against the Japanese in Tokyo in the summer of 2021 during the mixed team event, lost this time to these same Japanese, Sunday May 14, in the final of the world championships. taking place in Doha (Qatar). Without Clarisse Agbégnénou and Teddy Riner, both individually titled, the Tricolores are therefore content with the silver medal, the eighth for the French delegation in Qatar.
Gold, however, stretched its fingers to them and Margaux Pinot even thought to win it for a few seconds, during the very last fight. At 3-3 between the two teams, the Frenchwoman had to beat Saki Niizoe, world number 1 and reigning world champion, whom she had already beaten a few minutes earlier, to offer the coronation to the Habs. After five minutes of combat, Pinot managed an ippon, finally canceled by the referee for a fault of the Habs. Penalized three times, the French then allowed the victory of Japan. Cruel.
Gaba, boosted, transmitted his energy
Before approaching this final, the French had lived a peaceful Sunday by easily eliminating Lithuania (4-1), Romania (4-0) and Germany (4-1), respectively in eighth, quarter and half- finals. France had benefited from a simpler draw, leaving the other major nations involved – Japan, South Korea, Georgia, Brazil – to fall into the other part of the table. When approaching the final, however, the Habs knew the difficulty that awaited them.
Since the introduction of the mixed team event at the Worlds in 2017, Japan has won all the gold medals at stake. If the French won the Olympic Games against the Japanese in this category, they remained above all on defeats in the final of the world championships in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Compared to the last confrontation disputed in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) last October (4-2 for Japan) during the last edition of the Worlds, there It’s not just the score that has changed.
Because the Blues have done better than resist the Japanese and have not gone far from bringing the Worlds into a new era. The tricolor judokas were not intimidated, like Joan-Benjamin Gaba, 22, who launched France perfectly by beating the five-time world champion Soichi Hashimoto by an ippon after only 21 seconds. Boosted after this success during the first fight of this confrontation, Gaba was able to transmit this energy to Pinot and Coralie Hayme, winners in turn of their fight.
“It bodes well for the future, we get into their heads”
The outcome ultimately remains the same with the victory of Japan, which had already recovered from a two-point deficit at the start of the day against South Korea. “It’s cruel but it’s the magic of team competition: we are world champions 20 seconds but, in fact, we are second“, reacted Christophe Massina at the microphone of La Chaîne L’Équipe. The coach of the France team wanted to retain the positive despite the disillusionment: “This bodes well for the future. We get into their heads (to Japanese). They planned to beat us in Paris and it will not be won. We may be able to repeat the same scenario for them in Paris.”
France appears to be the team most likely to hurt Japan again, with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games. During the Olympics to be held in Paris, the Blues will certainly count on their most important elements, Agbégnénou and Riner , which had focused on the individual. France ends these Doha Worlds with eight medals, including two gold. The second best total behind Japan (12 medals).