Tokyo (AFP)

Take everything there is to take, immediately: the youth of the French judo team hit again Monday in the -57 kg with the silver medal of Sarah-Léonie Cysique, rather scheduled for Paris -2024 but finally passed very close to Olympic gold.

She had said it discreetly before the start of the Olympics: Paris in 2024, yes, but a medal in Tokyo was also "in the back of her mind".

The one she got on Monday is silver but it could have been gold.

Because the young Frenchwoman (23 years old), already twice in bronze at the European Championships, had started her final perfectly against the Kosovar Nora Gjakova.

But the fight was interrupted shortly after a minute by the referee who, somewhat to everyone's surprise, disqualified the Frenchwoman for "dangerous action", for herself in this case, when she rested her head on the carpet.

"I admit that I was a little in the misunderstanding. For me, I do not do dangerous actions. So there is a feeling of injustice but it is sport and the referees are there to judge according to their vision. If they consider that I have done a dangerous action, I must accept it, even if I do not agree, "said Cysique after his fight.

- "Cyso the Cutting" -

The feeling was shared by Sandrine Vandenhende, who trains Cysique in the absence of her usual coach Lucie Decosse, who has just had a child.

"I feel like it's a stupid and nasty application of the rules. I find it very, very hard for a final. From memory, I never saw that. It was cut short and on one action all. goes up in smoke, ”regretted the former Olympic and world champion.

But beyond the frustration of the moment, the Cysique medal came to confirm the immense potential of the young champion, as well as the vigor of the French judo team, which maintains its rhythm of a medal by day after the bronze Saturday for Luka Mkheidze (22 years old) and the silver Sunday for Amandine Buchard (26 years old).

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With three medals even before the entry into the running of the giants Clarisse Agbégnénou and Teddy Riner, the results are already good and very encouraging three years before the Paris Games, where Cysique will return to the charge.

Because the native of Sarcelles, who grew up in the Reims region, does not lag on the way.

The one who is nicknamed "Cyso the Cut", showed during her career at the Budokan, in particular during a superb semi-final against the Canadian Jessica Klimkait, world champion and world No. 1, that she was not already more in a logic of observation or learning.

- the boss -

"After the semi-final I was super happy to take a medal and I think it showed, I couldn't contain my emotions. But in the final, I was really convinced to come back with the gold ", she explained.

The support, sound, of his friends Amandine Buchard and Romane Dicko, who will in turn aim for gold on Friday in the + 78kg category, was not enough and the scenario of the fight remained all the same "through the throat" of world No. 6.

“At the moment, it's mostly frustration and I don't really realize that I'm vice-Olympic champion. I blame myself for not taking full advantage of this medal. evening it will be a little past, "added the impatient.

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But his ambition is shared by the management.

"The idea for her will be to drive the point home, to show that she is the patron of the category. She is very young and she already has the level. For me, she has the potential to be an Olympic champion. ", said Vandenhende.

© 2021 AFP