Paris (AFP)
Teddy Riner, deprived this weekend of the Rabat tournament, canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic, has taken "the steps" to fight at the Grand Slam of Ekaterinburg (Russia) scheduled a week later (March 13-15 ) to compensate, said the French Judo Federation on Thursday.
"The French Judo Federation is currently taking the necessary steps so that the French team initially entered in the Grand Prix of Rabat will also be involved in the Grand Slam of Ekaterinburg," she only told AFP. Riner is part of this delegation of nine tricolor judokas.
At this stage, "the Grand Slam of Ekaterinburg is confirmed and the registration period for the tournament has been extended to allow delegations to do so" at the last minute, explained the International Federation to AFP Wednesday evening, insisting on the fact that "the situation was changing day by day" around the coronavirus epidemic.
The Moroccan tournament, canceled by decision of the Moroccan government, was initially supposed to be Riner's first (30 years) since his defeat at the Grand Slam in Paris a month ago, his first in more than nine years. The loss ended his impressive streak of 154 consecutive wins. Before losing to the Japanese Kokoro Kagueura at Bercy, the double Olympic heavyweight champion had not lost since September 13, 2010.
For Riner as for all the other judokas involved in the Olympic race, five months before the Tokyo Games, the cancellation of the Grand Prix in Rabat was an opportunity to score fewer points - 700 maximum in this case. A thousand will be at stake in Ekaterinburg.
If his current 24th place in the Olympic ranking (which runs until May 30) virtually qualifies Riner for the Olympics-2020, it does not allow him to claim there a status of seed and a potentially more favorable picture, he who gave himself twenty months without fighting between November 2017 and last summer.
© 2020 AFP