Emilie Andeol saves French judo image with gold

Last year’s European Champion Emilie Andeol retained the heavyweight title during the European Games in Baku. In the final Germany’s Jasmin Kuelbs was her opponent,. This year she defeated Kuelbs in Tbilisi and she led in advance by 5-1. In the match it was different though.

The strong Kuelbs tried to throw and lift Andeol and looked the stronger of the two. Halfway the match it was the French who scored a yuko with a makikomi and landed in a fortunate hold down. The French controlled the German and made the score 6-1 on paper and won first ever gold medal for France this event. It was in 2010 that France won just one gold medal, but at least Andeol made her reputation come true.

The bronze was for Turkish Belkis Kaya. In her bronze bout against Santa Pakenyte Kaya couldn’t make the difference in the first half of the match, but 40 seconds for the end she launched a soto makikomi and took a wazari and Pakenyte landed in a hold down but tapped after 11 seconds. The Turkish won a bronze medal as well in 2012 and 2013. The Turkish is in a heavy competition with Kocaturk and Sayit, also two heavyweights, so this victory was very welcome. Kaya (20) will now pass Kocaturk (20) at the World Ranking.

Svitlana Yaromka won the second bronze. The small Ukrainian defeated Maryna Slutskaya of Belarus within a minute. Iaromka struck with a o soto gari and confirmed she belongs to the top 10 of the world, now ranked 6^th, 12 ranks higher than her competitor Kindzerska of her country. Iaromka won her first European medal.

Emilie ANDEOL reacted on her prolongation

"I am very proud to be able to win this new title. Of course I won the championships last year, but in my head it has been like I never won it. I just thought that this is a new day and a new competition."

On coming back from injury having been out of competition for nearly three months: 

"I came back to judo two weeks ago because I'd had a knee injury, so before I thought it'd be very complicated to win. A medal could've been possible, but to win it after just two weeks didn't seem very likely."

On her low expectations going into the European Games:

"In the beginning of the competition it was really difficult to see what I was going to be able to do with this and it felt like everybody could've beaten me, but I stayed very strong and managed to win anyway."