ORAN- The national judo team (ladies and gentlemen) won a good harvest during the first day of the African championship (seniors) disputed Thursday in Oran by offering four medals, two in gold and as much in bronze .
The gold medal goes to the ladies who managed to win three medals including two gold, the work of Faiza Aissahine (-48 kg) and Halata Yamina (-52 kg). Their teammate Imene Rezzoug was content with bronze (-48 kg), as did Billel Yagoubi (-60 kg) for the men.
The fifth Algerian involved in the events of this first day of the African meeting which takes place at the Mohamed-Benahmed Convention Center, in this case, Rachid Cherrad, was eliminated in the first round by the Angolan Pedro Edmilson (-66 kg), who will be crowned African champion in his category after beating Moroccan Boushita Abderrahmane in the final.
Commenting on the Algerian harvest on behalf of this first day, the national technical director, Samir Sbaâ, said he was “very satisfied” with the course of his capés.
“Our athletes entered today are to be congratulated on their fine harvest. We were not mistaken in our predictions, if we except the elimination in the first round of Cherrad Rachid. Admittedly, this is his first experience in a African championship, but we expected him to finish at least in fifth place”, immediately declared the DTN to the press after the fights of the inaugural day of the continental event.
Before adding: “Our judokas and judokas have proven that they have made an excellent preparation for this competition in which athletes from no less than 26 countries take part, which shows the great competition that prevails there. Several nations have made progress in this register by resorting in particular to dual nationals who evolve in Europe, like the judokas of Mauritius. That said, we are counting on a better harvest during the second day”.
Samir Sbaa also recalled that the objective of the Algerian participation being to improve the results of the national team compared to the previous edition when it had obtained three gold medals, and also above all to prepare the new generation that makes up the workforce of the Greens for the next challenges, in particular the Olympic Games of 2024 and 2028.
