Tokyo (AFP)
For a long time in the shadows, Madeleine Malonga (-78 kg) sprang into the light by offering her first crown of world judo champion, at age 25, Friday in Tokyo. At the best moment, at one year of the Olympics 2020 in the Japanese capital.
After the fourth historic coronation of Clarisse Agbegnenou (-63 kg) Wednesday, then the first of Marie-Eve Gahié (-70 kg) Thursday, here is the team of France at the head of a collection of three gold medals, all conquered by his female delegation, plus two bronze (Margaux Pinot in -70 kg and Axel Clerget in -90 kg).
The tricolor judo had not amassed so much gold since the Mondials-2011 organized in his lair of Bercy (4 titles). This is all the stronger as his comprehensive insurance Teddy Riner, double Olympic champion in heavyweight title and ten-time world champion, skips the rendezvous Tokyo, fully focused on the Olympics 2020. It falls precisely right, eleven months of the Olympic high mass in the country's cradle of judo.
"We have a team of phew!" Smiles Malonga about the women's group which she is part of the microphone of the channel L'Equipe.
For a long time, Malonga waited for her turn. Joining Insep in 2010, the year of her seventeen years, the one who, child, quickly abandoned the dance for judo has remained long years in the shadows, including that of Audrey Tcheuméo, double medalist Olympic (bronze in 2012 and silver in 2016), triple world medalist and quadruple champion of Europe between 2011 and 2017, but in difficulty this year and not selected for these Mondials-2019.
Truly launched on the international scene that for two seasons, "Mado" has offered European gold in 2018, then bronze, two months ago. Between the two, his first world experience ended in seventh place.
- "I'm going to cry for fifteen days" -
Five victories by ippon in as many fights, two last successes at the expense of the world N.1, the Brazilian Mayra Aguiar, then the outgoing world champion and N.3 worldwide, the Japanese Shori Hamada: it's on the carpets the prestigious Nippon Budokan, nestled in the heart of Tokyo, a stone's throw from the Imperial Palace, and which will host the Olympic judo events next summer, it has captured all the light.
In the final, Hamada quickly charged a late waza-ari before falling flat on the back after just under 2 minutes and 30 seconds of fighting.
"I have been gaining momentum all day long, winning in Japan is important to me, and I hope that in one year at the same place, it will be gold," Malonga dares. hit hard in the race at the only Olympic sesame game, and still struggling to control his tears long minutes after his victory.
"For years, I worked so much for that, to tell myself that I'm here (arrived), I think I'm going to cry for a fortnight, but never mind, I'm proud of myself," she says. .
Malonga, who, in parallel to her career as a nurse, conducts nursing studies, becomes the twentieth French judoka in the sacred history of the world.
In -100 kg, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Cyrille Maret and Alexandre Iddir were both stopped in the round of 16, the first defeated by the Russian Niyaz Ilyasov (ippon), the second by the Georgian Varlam Liparteliani (waza-ari ).
© 2019 AFP