France celebrated its Grand Slam with Teddy Riner’s gold, the fourth in these two days and eleventh medal (4-3-4) which is clearly worth the first place in the medal table ahead of Holland (2-0-2) and Georgia (2-0-1). Lorenzo Parodi instead he made his debut in Grand Slam Parisian with the victory over Houinato of Benin, nailed to the ground with a sankaku gatame. However, his path was then immediately blocked by that ‘monster’ of Tato Grigalashvili, a twenty-three-year-old Georgian who, in addition to later winning the Grand Slam gold in Paris in the 81 kg, already boasts two world finals (gold 2022, silver 2021) and first place in the world rankings. But Parodi, who is the same age as Grigalashvili, faced his opponent by attacking him openly and avoiding his attacks with acrobatic leaps. At least until ur nage who closed the meeting.
“Obviously it’s never nice to lose – he commented Lorenzo Parodi– but with a champion like Grigalashvili, defeat weighs less…in any case, now I’ll go back to training to the max to be able to play even more with them. I obviously wanted to thank all those who support me: my parents, my coaches and all my classmates”.
Some passages from the speeches delivered yesterday at the opening ceremony are significant and interesting. “Good morning everyone – said the president of French judo Stephen’s name– dear audience, dear fans, dear judokas, dear Marius, I wanted to thank you for being so many times at this 52nd international tournament of the city of Paris, now called Grand Slam Paris. I really wanted to thank Marius Vizer for all the work done by the IJF during the World Judo Tour and for giving us the opportunity to organize a grand slam in Paris. I’ve gone all over the world, to all competitions and you truly are the best audience in the world. Of all the judokas on the planet, including the Japanese, everyone wants to participate in the tournament in Paris and everyone wants to win in Paris. Today I met many former winners and many former medalists. I want to give them a big round of applause because they made us dream. This is the biggest tournament in the world. Today our federation is doing well. We have reached 500,000 judokas. We have many projects, including the 1000 dojo program. I wish great success to all participants”. “Welcome to all at the Grand Slam in Paris -said the IJF president instead Marius Vizer– Neither war nor politics can divide us. Sport embodies the most important values of solidarity and peace and is the bridge that is the messenger of peaceful unity, the starting point for reconciliations. Sport can be a symbol of friendship in the world. I wish you all a successful event”.
Second day results
81: 1. Tato Grigalashvili (Geo), 2. Timo Cavelius (Ger), 3. Alpha Oumar Djalo (Fra) and Francois Gauthier Drapeau (Can)
90: 1. Noel Van T End (Ned), 2. Murad Fatiyev (Aze), 3. Ivan Felipe Silva Morales (Cub) e Luka Maisuradze (Geo)
100: 1. Michael Korrel (Ned), 2. Dzhafar Kostoev (UAE), 3. Peter Paltchik (Isr) and Zelym Kotsoiev (Aze)
+100: 1. Teddy Riner /Fra), 2. Hyoga Ota (Japan), 3. Alisher Yusupov (Uzb) and Jaegu Youn (Kor)
70: 1. Ai Tsunoda Rosutant (Esp), 2. Marie Eve Gahie (From), 3. Ellen Froner (Good) e Kim Polling (Down)
78: 1. 1. Audrey Tcheumeo (Fra), 2. Chloe Buttgieg (Fra), 3. Guuske Steenhuis (Ned) e Lee Jeongyun (Kor)
+78: 1. Kim Hayun (Kor), 2. Maya Akiba (Jpn), 3. Romane Dicko (Fra) and Julia Tolofua (Fra)
