Tokyo 2020: can the Japanese bring down Teddy Riner again?

Text by: Farid Achache Follow

After almost 10 years of invincibility, Teddy Riner was beaten during the Paris tournament by the Japanese Kokoro Kageura. Less than six months from the Games, Japanese judokas, who dream of the title at home, discover that the French champion is no longer invulnerable.

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Sunday, while the wind was sweeping Paris, Teddy Riner was shaken by a Japanese, Kokoro Kageura. A revolution in the world of judo. After 154 victorious fights, the French colossus fell and was almost relieved. " Counting the fights to get the Yamashita [the Japanese Yasuhiro Yamashita who has chained 203 consecutive victories in the 1980s, note] , it's heavy, admitted the Guadeloupe . For ten years, I had this victory counter in my head, I held out as best I could ... ”

Teddy Riner, double Olympic champion , had not bowed since September 13, 2010. Another Japanese, Daiki Kamikawa, who was until then the last to have folded, in the final of the World All Categories Tokyo.

" Beating Teddy Riner is our main goal "

A few months before the 2020 Olympic deadline, the sanction came from Kokoro Kageura, who granted the wish of the icon of the tatami mats, his compatriot Kosei Inoue, gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 in the category less than 100 kg.

" Beating Teddy Riner is our main objective ," said Inoue in 2016 in the columns of Liberation for the Olympic Games in Rio . This is what we dedicate all our training to, every day. Teddy Riner is very careful on the tatami. The other judoka who had this same quality was Master Yamashita. They are judokas who do not go on an adventure at the time of the fight. On the contrary, they seek to capture their opponent perfectly and have a dozen techniques that can allow them to win. So, even at 70% of their shape, they find a way to overcome . "

In Tokyo, at home, the Nippons will want to repeat the feat of Kokoro Kageura. But there may not be revenge between the two judokas. Indeed, the presence of Kageura is not acquired. If the performance of the student of the University of Tokai marked the spirits, it is Hisayoshi Harasawa who holds the rope for the moment. Each country cannot align more than one representative per category.

Hisayoshi Harasawa or the revenge of Rio

And it is perhaps a chance for the French: Hisayoshi Harasawa was the prey of Teddy Riner in Rio in 2016 during the Olympic final. Last July, at the Montreal Grand Prix, the two men met again. Riner was hooked in the final by the Japanese, forcing him to go to the “golden score” (additional time). The Frenchman, absent for 18 months, had won on Waza-ari after an incisive attack.

In the past two years, Riner, soon to be 31, will only have participated in two tournaments: Montreal in July 2019, then in Brasilia, in October. Not enough to know if the Japanese will really be the ones who will prevent him from winning a third Olympic title.

In addition, all is not rosy among Japanese heavyweights. In Tokyo, during the last world championships, the country had experienced a real disaster. Keiji Suzuki, tatami star, had been eliminated as soon as he entered the contest by Pole Wojnarowicz on ippon. Hisayoshi Harasawa, he lost in the final against the Czech Lukas Krpalek.

But the French champion has not said his last word: " It is better that it happens to me now ," he said positively after his defeat. […] There are still five months to go. If this happens to me at the Games, then I will be upset . »Appointment is made on July 31, on Japanese tatami mats.

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Judo: in Paris, Teddy Riner falls at home