Tokyo (AFP)

Sarah Lé Léonie Cysique (-57 kg) stalled at the foot of the podium: after three days of competition, and before the entry in the running of their card Clarisse Agbegnenou Wednesday, the medals continue to escape the Blues at the Championships of judo world, Tuesday in Tokyo.

If, as for Melanie Clément (-48 kg) and Amandine Buchard (-52 kg) before, the podium narrowly escaped under the feet of Cysique, who plays at 21 years her first Worlds, the young judoka was however distinguished in the race with Olympic sesame. A category where it jostles French side, with Hélène Receveaux, just back from a fractured heel and stopped her in the second round, but also Priscilla Gneto and Autumn Pavia, not selected for the appointment Tokyo.

"She has had a great day, she has come up against big pieces, it's a promising and exciting fifth place for the future, and it's on this kind of performance that Sarah is going to build her career," says Stéphane Traineau. director of the teams of France.

"She showed that she was very close to the best in the category", greets her coach at Insep Lucie Décosse at the microphone of the channel L'Equipe.

"I think it's feasible, that I was really not far, I'm very sad but I'm going to recover and get back to work, I think it's still very good, I'm quite happy with me, "cries Cysique, between tears and smile. "I felt pretty good, in my head and physically, I was really sure of myself, ready to fight."

"After my non-selection for the European Championships (end of June in Minsk, where only Gneto was retained, ed), I thought I had lost my chance, I was given another and I said that I had to prove to them that they were not wrong, "says the junior world junior champion and European junior champion 2018.

- Three out of six -

Winner of her first three bouts, Cysique then lost her first quarter-final match against future world champion Christa Deguchi of Canada (ippon) and her fight for third place against the Olympic champion. in title, the Brazilian Rafaela Silva, only by waza-ari.

Between the two, she dominated the 2018 European Champion and 2019 European Vice Champion, Kosovare Nora Gjakova, by ippon.

If the French judokas accumulate the fifth places on the Japanese carpets, it is less brilliant side gentlemen. None of the first four entries reached the quarter-finals, opening the way for the medals.

His ten-time world champion Teddy Riner skips the Mondials-2019, the tri-color judo relies on his other gold collector, Clarisse Agbegnenou, to unlock his counter on Wednesday. Olympic Vice Champion 2016 and undefeated for twenty months, Agbegnenou has the opportunity to become, at 26, the first French judoka quadruple world gold medalist (ahead of Décosse, Emane and Deydier, crowned three times).

On his lands, Japan has won his third title of the competition - on six awarded until then - thanks to the irresistible Shohei Ono (27 years), victorious of his six fights by ippon and now triple world champion in - 73kg (2013, 2015 and 2019), he who had not participated in the Worlds for four years. A year of the Olympics 2020 in the capital of Japan, an ideal scenario, which he however welcomed without any apparent emotion.

Sacred in -57 kg, Deguchi has marked the history of Canadian judo by giving him, at 23, the first ever world crown in his history by defeating the Japanese Tsukasa Yoshida, outgoing world champion and N .1 world, in the golden score (waza-ari).

Deguchi, who grew up and still lives in Japan, is no longer fighting for his native country but for his Canadian father's two years.

© 2019 AFP