Humo Arena in Tashkent. © Paco Lozano / The Spirit of Judo
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10:35 a.m. -52kg: Buchard cutting
What a de-ashi-barai! After a minute and a half of fighting against the Spanish Estrella Lopez Sheriff, European medalist 2020, Amandine Buchard released the killer sweep. Hands barely down, perfect timing to sweep forward leg. Ippon. A nice judo move. Here is the French in the quarter-finals. It will be against the Brazilian Pimenta who beat the Uzbek Keldiyorova after three minutes of golden score, before perhaps finding Uta Abe. In the other half-table, we already know the semi-final: the British Chelsie Giles, victorious over the Polish Aleksandra Kaleta will be opposed to the Kosovare Distria Krasniqi who, coached by Majlinda Kelmendi, beat the Italian Odette Giuffrida. Solid.
9:50 a.m. -66kg: Khyar beaten by Shmailov
Walide Khyar will not see the quarter-final against An Baul. If the Korean went to seek his qualification for the golden score during the previous fight, the Frenchman lost to the golden score after an extremely dense and rhythmic fight against the massive Israeli Baruch Shmailov. No mark despite attacks on both sides, mammoth kumikata and counter situations for each of the two. Everything was decided on a lightning ashi-guruma attack from Shmailov. Ippon. The scales did not tip in the right direction for Walide Khyar.
9h1 -52kg : Buchard
Opposed to the new Swiss nugget Binta Ndiaye, Amandine Buchard launched her fight perfectly with a kata-guruma for waza-ari. Dominating on guard, in particular on her opponent’s right sleeve, which she locked perfectly, the Olympic vice champion got a little scare on a superb o-uchi-gari from Ndiaye, managing to turn around to avoid the mark. What give a little confidence to the Swiss who accelerated on two or three sequences. With a closed face, visibly not so happy with herself, the boss Buchard put the church back in the center of the village to regain full control in the kumikata and, bringing Ndiaye to the ground several times, intelligently followed to mow down on o -soto-gari. Waza-ari awasete ippon. Not a twirling start but Amandine Buchard had the lucidity she needed. She is in her competition.
The recap’ -> You didn’t follow everything from yesterday? It is to be listened to here with the reactions of the French.
8 a.m. -66kg: It goes through pain for Khyar
It took patience for the French against the Mongol Kherlen Ganbold (14th in the world) during this first round. Two fighters who had never faced each other, with some similarities in style… Powerful guards, kicks and a few attempted snatches and the two were already at the golden score. The additional time started again on the same bases of a dense fight, before the Mongol came to block the elbow of the Frenchman and turn towards the ground… hansokumake after video verification. A victory in pain. The Algerian Ezzine absent because not in weight last night, Walide Khyar has no opponent for the second round and finds himself directly propelled to the third, probably against the Israeli Baruch Shmailov.
7:10 a.m. It could be fire today in Tashkent!
Hello everyone, it’s almost 10:30 am in Tashkent and we meet again for the second day of competition: place this Friday at -52kg F and -66kg M. To fully understand the issues of the day, a short recap of our analysis of the draw.
Towards a final before the hour in -52kg. Seeded n°1, Amandine Buchard (PSG Judo) and Uta Abe, seeded n°5, find themselves by the graces of the draw in the same half-table. A configuration synonymous with a possible semi-final between the Japanese and the French, one year after the very high intensity final offered at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. An exciting hypothesis.
A summit, with, no doubt, for the one who would emerge victorious from this showdown, the hypothesis of finding the Kosovare Distria Krasniqi in the final.
Still, the French (victorious in Paris and Abu Dhabi), to afford the right to seek a first title of senior world champion, will have a course that is anything but easy: a tricky first round with, a priori, the young Swiss nugget, Binta N’Diaye, double junior world medalist (2021 and 2022); then a second against the Italian Martina Castagnola (fifth at the Tbilisi Grand Slam) or the Spaniard Estrella Lopez Sheriff (third at Tbilisi and seventh at the Croatian Grand Prix).
If all goes well until then, Buchard could then face in the quarterfinals the Uzbek Diyora Keldiyorova, winner of the Grand Slam of Ulaanbaatar and, above all, of the Asian Games, where she beats the Japanese Ai Shishime in the final. . Buchard/Keldiyorova? A first for two fighters who have never met before. Watch out for the terrible sode-tsuri-komi-goshi of Ilias Iliadis’ protege!
In the other part of the table, in addition to Krasniqi, in the same quarter of the table as the Hungarian Reka Pupp (victorious in Antalya and Budapest), the Briton Chelsie Giles, European champion 2022 (beating Buchard in the final), will try to add another international medal to its collection after last year’s Olympic bronze and spring continental gold. Sensing the blows ingeniously, Giles is on a remarkable dynamic.
En -66kg, Walide Khyar (FLAM 91) won’t have the easy part either. In the first round, it is the Mongol Kherlen Ganbold (14th in the world) who is offered to him. A double bronze medalist judoka in Grand Slam this season (Tel Aviv and Budapest), whom the Frenchman has never had in his hands in official competition. If Khyar gets out of the Mongolian embrace, he who finished third in Paris in October then fifth in Abu Dhabi, Ulaanbaatar and Budapest, he will then find the Algerian Wail Ezzine, in silver on the African opens in Tunisia and from Algeria at the beginning of the year, before an eighth which promises to be physically tough again with the Israeli bull Baruch Shmailov. In the quarters, it is the indestructible South Korean An Baul who would then emerge.
A category where the Japanese duel Hifumi Abe / Joshiro Maruyama will occupy a good part of the attention of the amateurs. An extraordinary rivalry between the two Japanese -66kg. Who does not remember their stratospheric semi-final in Tokyo in 2019 or their fight for the qualification for the Olympic Games (find it here for fun)?
Will the two best -66kg from the previous Olympiad meet again for a new very high level confrontation? One won two world champion titles in 2017 and 2018 and an Olympic title in 2021. The second two world champion titles (2019 and 2021), ongoing series.
This Friday, they will not be in the same half-table. Abe will have to get rid of the Mongolian “wear” Baskhuu Yondonperenlei, reigning Asian champion, and probably the silky Moldovan Denis Vieru. Maruyama has the Georgian Vazha Margevelashvili (vice Olympic champion) and the Korean An Baul (bronze medalist) in his table.
Will one of the most beautiful duels of recent years experience a new chapter tomorrow? We can’t wait to find out.
