Budapest (AFP)

The French judo team started the world championships in Budapest with a day of frustration on Sunday, Walide Khyar (-60 kg) remaining at the foot of the podium after seeing each other for a few moments in the final and Shirine Boukli (-48 kg ) failing in the draft when she aimed much higher.

European champion in 2016, Khyar was in Budapest looking for a first world medal, he who will not be in Tokyo for the Olympics this summer.

And for a few moments, it is as if this medal was around his neck, when in the semifinals the referee inflicted a third penalty worth defeating his opponent, Kazakh Gusman Kyrgyzbayev.

But the decision was overturned, the fight resumed and Khyar lost.

And in the match for 3rd place, he was logically dominated by the Spaniard Francisco Garrigos, reigning European champion, thus failing to offer France a world medal expected since 1991 in the category.

"The referee puts the last penalty but the table reconsiders its decision. It's very weird. Here it is, it happened, I am very frustrated", reacted Khyar (25 years) after his last fight.

"It frustrates me, it gets on my nerves. We see each other in the final, we say to ourselves + There you go, after more than 20 years without a medal in this category, that's it ... +. There, it lasted five seconds. But in my head it lasted an hour. I said to myself + Here, I am in the final + and the following sequence, I fall. It was horrible ", he added.

"It will mull over in my head for days, maybe months. But it will be necessary to rework. It is like that", again told the Ile-de-France, who will still be able to rely on a good journey up to in the semi-finals, where he showed his ability to stay focused in fights that he was able to reverse after being led.

"To come back with a world title would have been wonderful but it will be for the next time, I have no doubt. I continue to move forward. The goal may be longer term, but it remains present", a he concluded.

The other entered in the -60 kg category, Romaric Bouda, had for his part been eliminated in the second round.

- Boukli "disappointed and annoyed" -

There was no medal either in -48 kg for the women, where Mélanie Clément was beaten in the 3rd round and where Shirine Boukli did not manage to get the podium she was aiming for and which could have been allow him to return among the seeds of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo.

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Beaten in the quarterfinals by the Spanish Figueroa (waza-ari) after winning her first two fights with mastery, the young (22 years old) European champion was then trapped in the repechage during the golden-score (waza-ari ) by the experienced Mongolian Munkhbat, former world champion.

"There are surely positive things but there, I do not have the hindsight. I know that I am worth better than that", dropped Boukli in mixed zone, saying to himself "disappointed, frustrated and angry" at the end of his first Worlds.

"It's not possible to lose to a girl who has two golden-score penalties. It's not acceptable what I just did," she said of her draft fight.

"Even if it's frustrating, I have to know how to move on. It was not the initial objective, I was not supposed to be there and I hope that will serve as a lesson to me", a- she added.

"Fighting like that, it's never again, it's unacceptable. These mistakes I made them and maybe I had to make them not to do them again afterwards", she concluded, always bitter but already turned to Tokyo.

Monday, the world championships continue with -52 kg for girls and -66 kg for boys.

On the French side, Astrid Gneto and Kilian Le Blouch, who will be in Tokyo, are engaged.

© 2021 AFP