The four Belgian judokas engaged on the first day of the Jerusalem Masters were not far behind. The disappointment is especially very great for Jorre Verstraeten and Charline Van Snick.
Par Ph.VW
Lhe Jerusalem Masters, which brings together the 36 best judokas in each weight category, turned to the confusion of the first four Belgians (out of nine) entered on the first day of competition.
The main disappointment came from Jorre Verstraeten who, as the 4th in the world in less than 60 kg, had a lot to do. But the Louvanist, “bye” in the first round as the seed, never managed to find the key during his inaugural fight against Azeri Bayramov (IJF 25). In less than 2:30, Verstraeten received three penalties for preventing his opponent from grabbing his judogi and was disqualified. Previously, he had also taken a waza ari on a leg block.
Many eyes were also on Charline Van Snick. The Liègeoise, who we had not seen since the Tokyo Games, where she finished 7th, and who had fallen to 33rd place in the world, resumed competition after 17 months of absence, but there is no no miracles. Lacking in rhythm, she was under no illusions against the German Ballhaus (IJF 18), 10 years her junior, who scored two waza ari without ever shaking, the first after 50 seconds on a leg block, the second shortly before mid-fight on a small interior mowing.
While Mina Libeer (IJF 15) was quickly pinned down by Japan’s Yoshida (IJF 16) in the first round of -57kg, only Ellen Salens (IJF 34), in -48kg, managed to win a fight, against the Taiwanese Lin Chen-Hao (IJF 32) on disqualification but she then suffered the law of the Kazakh Abuzhakynova (IJF 11).
