France still has two chances of medals this Friday at the world judo championships in Budapest, thanks to Madeleine Malonga and Alexandre Iddir.
The French judo team has only one medal on the clock (the gold one from Clarisse Agbegnenou in the -63kg) after four days of competition at the world championships in Budapest, but Friday could be prolific, with two more medal chances at midday. Starting with the 2019 world champion and 2018 and 2020 European champion of -78kg, Madeleine Malonga, who qualified for the semi-finals. The 27-year-old judokate, exempted from the first round, had a somewhat delicate entry, winning “only” thanks to a waza-ari against the Croatian Karla Prodan. But in the quarter-finals against the Ukrainian Anastasiya Turchyn, it took only 39 seconds to put her opponent ippon. She will be opposed in the semi-finals to the Dutch Guusje Steenhuis, world No. 6 and three-time European vice-champion, against whom she has lost three times out of four.
Iddir in the race for bronze
On the men’s side, -100kg were on the day’s program, and France will win, at best, a bronze medal thanks to Alexandre Iddir. The 30-year-old judoka, third in the last European Championships in April, was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the Dutchman Michael Korrel, bronze medalist of the 2019 Worlds, who put him ippon in the golden score. Previously, the French had won his first two fights, against Montenegrin Danilo Pantic and Serbian Bojan Dosen, as their opponents had received a third penalty, synonymous with defeat, during the golden score. Iddir will face for his first draft match the Georgian Ilia Sulamanidze, 31st in the world, whom he beat in the last Euro. However, the competition quickly ended for Cyrille Maret, who received a third golden score penalty against South Korean Jonghoon Won, eliminated in the next round, which will not allow the Frenchman to compete in the repechage.
