Morocco claims another two African judo titles

Morocco is having a great African Championship so far. With two gold medals at the second day in Dakar, it is pure luxury with four titles and seven medals in total now. Algeria captured its first African title this year and Tunisia added a third gold medal.

The most remarkable title was for Sarah Harachi, who recently switched from France to Morocco and immediately claimed the gold medal. The 25-year old won her final against Sandrine Billiet who switched from Belgium to Cape Verde in 2019. Last year’s winner Amina Belkadi (ALG) and Meriem Bjaoui (TUN) bagged the bronze medals.

Harachi made a successful comeback after becoming a mother. Harachi who was a French talent in her youth took bronze at the World Cadets in 2013 and took world bronze at junior level in 2015. For France she won the World Cup in Casablanca at the age of 20 in 2016 and was in the finals in Tunis and Casablanca in 2017.

The second Moroccan gold was for Achraf Moutii who finally tasted to win at the African Championships. Moutii took bronze in 2019 and 2020 and silver in 2018. This tine he won the final U81kg and defeated Houchem Sellami (TUN) who overcame the favourite, Mohamed Abdelaal in the semi final. Moutii showed no doubts and booked four ippons.

Algeria was proud of the first tournament gold for the experienced Fethi Nourine (29) who regained the African title after bronze in December last year. It was his third title U73kg. Faye Njie of Gambia was defeated by Nourine in this year’s final. Nourine is the only judoka who can resist the strong Egyptian dominance in this category, but with the absence of Mohamed Mohyeldin Egypt couldn’t compete for the gold.

Tunisia had two strong women U70kg and it resulted in an all Tunisian final, another good success of coach Anis Lounifi when Nihel Landolsi and Mariem Khelifi reached the final. This category is usually unpredictable with winners from various countries over years. Assmaa Niang won the African title five times but Landolsi was able to become her successor after snatching the gold in the golden score.

Morocco (4) leads the medal table with Tunisia (3) as runner-up, Algeria and Egypt both won one gold medal.