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Judo: one year after the Olympics, Riner victorious for his recovery

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The triple Olympic champion, Teddy Riner, winner of the Grand Slam of Budapest in the category of more than 100 kilos, during the French national anthem. Photo: AFP / VNA / CVN

Coming to the Hungarian capital to “measure up” on the road to the big Olympic meeting in Paris in two years, Riner won without much difficulty his four fights of the day in the over 100 kilos category.

The 33-year-old judoka dominated for the title the Dutchman Jelle Snippe, ten years his junior, who had climbed to the final to everyone’s surprise. Encouraged by the “Teddy! Teddy!” of his relatives, he beat his opponent, who rose from the category of less than 100 kg a year ago, after only 40 seconds of combat.

“I saw the opportunity, I went for it”, analyzed the ten-time world champion.

Riner had not appeared in international competition since the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Beaten in the quarter-finals by the Russian Tamerlan Bashaev, he left Japan with an individual bronze medal, offset by a title in the mixed team event.

Since then, he had only participated in the French Team Championships with his PSG club in November 2021 in Perpignan, then in Villebon-sur-Yvette in May.

“It was hard to get back into it, to come back to a Grand Slam after a year of training and preparation”, he acknowledged. “I managed to get to the end of this day, I still expressed myself quite a bit, I’m happy.”

This victory will allow him to climb in the hierarchy of his category for the Paris Olympics in 2024, where the most successful judoka in the history of his sport, currently 17e world, will aim for a third individual Olympic title, after those won in London in 2012 then in Rio in 2016.

“It shows that I have a good level, that I’m not too bad and that I can believe in these 2024 Olympics”he welcomed.

The Worlds in October

Exempted from the first round, Teddy Riner, who weighed 150 kilos on the scale, entered the neon green tatamis of the Papp Laszlo Arena shortly after noon, winning his recovery fight against the modest Brazilian Joao Cesarino, 146e world.

The French Teddy Riner, the winner of the Grand Slam of Budapest in the category of more than 100 kilos. Photo: AFP / VNA / CVN

In the next round, the Guadeloupe defeated an opponent of another caliber, the solid Azerbaijani Ushangi Kokauri, 9e in the world ranking and vice-world champion in 2018. He had won on penalties after 2 min 50 of combat without having really needed to attack his opponent.

More attacking in the semi-finals, he then dominated the Georgian Gela Zaalishvili, 8e world after only 1 min 24 sec of confrontation. “Ah yeah, he’s top 8? I didn’t know”, reacted Riner. “But I knew he was a strong guy. I enjoyed this match.”

The outcome could have been even faster since the central referee had given ippon to the French after 33 seconds before being disavowed by the table judges.

During the day, “it went up crescendo”, analyzed his lifelong coach Franck Chambily. “Because he needs to gauge himself and when you gauge yourself, you can’t take risks right away.”

For his next major meeting, Teddy Riner will line up for the World Championships in October in Uzbekistan, a first since the 2017 Worlds. That year, he went to Marrakech to seek the tenth planetary title of his career, a record.

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