DOHA (Qatar): Two-time Olympic champion Teddy Riner won the over 100kg title at the International Judo Federation World Masters Doha on Wednesday.
For the slick-looking Frenchman, who lost 20 kilos before the event, the gold medal will serve an ideal comeback, less than seven months before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he will seek a third consecutive gold medal.
“It feel better to come back like this and win a medal in Qatar,” said the 31-year-old. “I feel like I’m getting younger,”
Riner comfortably saw off Russian Inal Tasoev in the final, the world number three, and out behind him his two defeats in 2020.
Tasoev struggled against his French opponent, and received three shido penalties which awarded the title to Riner.
On the third and last day of the Doha Masters, France dominated wining three gold. France finished on top winning five gold, in front of South Korea with three gold medals and Japan with two gold.
French success came in the women’s half-heavyweight (-78 kg) and heavyweight (+78 kg) categories.
In the under-78 kg class, world champion Madeleine Malonga defeated Hamada Shori of Japan in a repeat of the 2019 world final.
Romane Dicko won in the heavyweight category by seeing off world number seven Kayra Sayit of Turkey in the semis and world No.4 Iryna Kindzerska of Azerbaijan in the final.
In the men’s -90 kg, Dutch world champion Noel van ‘t End defeated Beka Gvinishvili of Georgia in the final.
Gvinishvili’s teammate Varlam Liparteliani, Rio silver medalist at -90 kg, clinched -100 kg gold in a tense final.
At the end of the competition, the best male and female athletes were recognised based on the number of ippon scores and the total time spent on the tatami, based on the fact that a hansoku-make doesn’t count as ippon in this context.
Best female athlete: Romane Dicko (FRA) – 4 ippon – 9 minutes and 3 seconds.
Best male athlete: Tato Grigalashvili (GEO) – 4 ippon – 16 minutes and
33 seconds.
