no medal for Clarisse Agbégnénou, premature exit in the quarter-finals

A bad surprise. Against all expectations, Clarisse Agbégnénou was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the European Judo Championships, Saturday November 4, in Montpellier. The French judokate, six times world champion and four times European champion, lost against the Kosovar Laura Fazliu at the end of the golden score, before doing it again during her first repechage fight to end a complicated day for the one who aims to achieve the double in Paris, three years after the gold brought back from Tokyo.

The Frenchwoman, victorious in her first fight against the Croatian Katarina Kristo, experienced more problems in the second round against the Finnish Emilia Kanerva. She had to wait more than ten minutes of combat to inflict an ippon on her opponent. Facing Laura Fazliu, the golden score was fatal for her, on waza-ari, while the French judokate thought she had won a few seconds earlier. An opponent who had already dominated her, during the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv last February. Returned to the repechage table, Clarisse Agbégnénou was dominated from the start by the Hungarian Szofi Ozbas.

Two losses in a row and a premature elimination well below his expectations eight months before the Paris Olympic Games. Before the start of the competition, the 31-year-old spearhead of French women’s judo remained on a bronze medal at the Hungarian Masters in August, after having obtained a gold medal at the world championships in Doha in May. .