French Judoka Léa Fontaine Fails to Medal at World Championships in Abu Dhabi

Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Thursday May 23, 2024 at 1:13 p.m.

The only Frenchwoman competing this Thursday during the world judo championships in Abu Dhabi, Léa Fontaine was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the +78kg. Then she failed in her first repechage fight.

The individual events end this Thursday at the world judo championships in Abu Dhabi, and the French team occupies fourth place in the medal rankings (behind Japan, Georgia and Italy) thanks to the gold won by Margaux Pinot, silver from Marie-Eve Gahié and bronze from Amandine Buchard, Clarisse Agbegnenou and Madeleine Malonga. But the French delegation will not be able to win a new medal this Thursday. In the absence of French fighters in -100kg and +100kg for men (Teddy Riner, a time awaited, preferred to give up), Léa Fontaine was the only Frenchwoman competing on this last day, in the -78kg category. And she was eliminated in the quarter-finals, then in the repechage. Not selected for the Olympic Games, the world n°1 Romane Dicko (absent at the Worlds) having been preferred, the world n°10 would have liked to console herself with a first world title, she who had won silver at the Euro 2021 and bronze at Euro 2024. It’s a failure.

Two ippons to start, one to finish

The day had started perfectly for the 22-year-old Reunion Islander. It began with a victory on ippon after 50 seconds of combat against the Uzbek Rinata Ilmatova (40th in the world) then another after 2’09 of combat against the Croatian Ivana Sutalo (50th). Léa Fontaine then challenged Turkey’s Hilal Ozturk, world n°12 and defeater of Chinese n°1 seed Xin Su in the previous round, in the quarter-finals. And the Turk won thanks to a waza-ari, thus beating the Frenchwoman for the seventh time in eleven fights. Léa Fontaine therefore had to console herself with the repechage tournament to try to win the bronze medal. But she lost in the first round against the South Korean Hayun Kim. The world No. 7, who had won her three previous fights against the Frenchwoman, put Fontaine ippon after 2’27. It is therefore a day without a medal for the French team, which intends to get on the podium during the mixed team event on Friday.

2024-05-23 11:18:31
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