World Championships: Deketer beaten in semi-finals, Djalo eliminated in sixteenths

Like the +100kg for men, difficult to evolve in France in the category of -63kg for women. Clarisse Agbegnenou, undefeated in major competition since 2017, monopolizes all the attention, and Manon Deketer therefore had a huge opportunity to be talked about during the world championships in Tashkent, for which the Olympic champion in the category, mother for four month, is flat rate. And the 24-year-old Dunkirk seized her chance! Third at the Tbilisi and Tel Aviv tournaments this year, Manon Deketer qualified for the semi-finals of the Worlds this Sunday. She had an excellent start to the day, with three ippon victories against opponents she was facing for the first time, being exempted from the first round: after 1’15 of a fight against the Uzbek Sevinch Isokova in the sixteenth round, then after 3’30 against the Dutch Sanne Vermeeer (world bronze medalist last year) in the round of 16, and finally after 2’42 against the Romanian Florentina Ivanescu in the quarters. But things got tough in the semi-finals, against the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympics, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard. Although she had already beaten her twice in two confrontations, and in particular in February in Tel Aviv, Deketer could not do anything during this fight, losing on ippon after 2:23. She will therefore play for the bronze medal, against the Polish Angelika Szymanska, whom she had beaten in 2018 during their only confrontation.

Djalo only passes one round

On the men’s side, the -81kg category was in the running this Sunday, with only one Frenchman, Alpha Djalo. But the 26-year-old judoka didn’t stay long on the Uzbek tatami. Winner of the Polish Pawel Drzymal, whom he faced for the first time, on an ippon after only 50 seconds of play, the Parisian then lost to the formidable Georgian Tato Grigalashvili, double European champion 2020 and 2022 and vice-world champion 2021, who won in 1’42. While Amandine Buchard brought the only medal to the French delegation since the start of the Worlds, the men’s team is therefore still fanny. Maybe Alexis Mathieu, in -90kg, will unlock the counter on Monday?