Larbi Benboudaoud has unveiled the list of judokas who will participate in the European Junior Championships scheduled for September 9 to 12 in Luxembourg.
Larbi Benboudaoud, Director of High Performance:
Our Juniors have already made some international outings and the results have been positive. We have a great team from France, for both women and men, which will be competitive despite a few injuries. Our young people will have to take advantage of the momentum launched by their elders during the Tokyo Olympic Games. Among this generation, some young people may take part in the Paris 2024 Games: for them, everything starts now. They have to keep up the momentum and have some great European and World Championships which will happen very quickly thereafter.
Gilles Bonhomme, National Junior Coach:
Our juniors arrive at the European Championships with few benchmarks vis-à-vis international competition, but we know that they are all capable of performing well. They all followed the performance of our seniors in Tokyo; it gives confidence and motivation. We will also have women who will be our leaders with Léa Fontaine and Faiza Mokdar who together have 5 European titles in Cadets and Juniors. There is the ambition to do great things. Unlike in previous years, the world championships will arrive very quickly afterwards (6 to 10 October 2021) and the sequence will be difficult; it’s important to focus on going step by step and shining in Luxembourg before devoting yourself to the worlds.
