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Doha Masters: Riner leads France’s gold rush in Qatar

 

Doha Masters: Riner leads France’s gold rush in Qatar

 

 

Doha: Two-time Olympic champion Teddy Riner, who made his return to international tatami mats for the first time since February 2020, won gold in the over 100KG category in the International Judo Federation Doha masters on Wednesday.

 

For the slick-looking Frenchman, who lost 20 kilos before the event, the gold medal will serve an ideal comeback, less than seven months before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he will seek a third consecutive gold medal.

"I feel better to come back like this and win a medal in Qatar," said the 31-year-old champion after his fight.

 

 "I feel like I'm getting younger," added Riner, a ten-time world champion.

Riner comfortably saw off Russian Inal Tasoev in the final, the world number three, and out behind him his two defeats in 2020.

Tasoev, shorter in stature than Riner, struggled to properly get a grip on his French opponent, and received three shido penalties which awarded the title to Riner.

 

On the third and last day of the Doha Masters, France dominated wining three gold. France finished on top winning five gold, in front of South Korea with three gold medals and Japan with two gold. 19 countries won a medal.

French success came in the women's half-heavyweight (-78 kg) and heavyweight (+78 kg) categories.

 

In the under-78 kg class, world champion Madeleine Malonga defeated Hamada Shori of Japan in a repeat of the 2019 world final.

 

Romane Dicko scored an impressive victory in the heavyweight category, coming through her pool by defeating world number one and three-time Olympic medallist Idalys Ortiz before seeing off world number seven Kayra Sayit of Turkey in the semi-finals and world number four Iryna Kindzerska of Azerbaijan in the final.

 

 

 

In the men's -90 kg, Dutch world champion Noel van 't End defeated Beka Gvinishvili of Georgia in the final.

 

 

Gvinishvili's teammate Varlam Liparteliani, the Rio silver medallist at -90 kg, clinched -100 kg gold in a tense final.

 

At the end of the competition, the best male and female athletes were recognised based on the number of ippon scores and the total time spent on the tatami, based on the fact that a hansoku-make doesn't count as ippon in this context. The results are:

 

Best female athlete: Romane Dicko (FRA) - 4 ippon - 9 minutes and 3 seconds.

 

Best male athlete: Tato Grigalashvili (GEO) - 4 ippon - 16 minutes and 33 seconds.

 

Each winner will be awarded by the IJF with a special prize.