Frustrating day for Daikii Bouba: after eliminating world No.1 in -66 kg Denis Vieru, the Frenchman lost in the round of 16 of the World Championships on Monday in Abu Dhabi.
Bouba started the day well by taking out the Canadian Julien Frascadore, then especially by getting the better of the Romanian world number 1 Vieru. But in the eighth, he faltered against the Finn Luukas Saha, who seemed within his reach.
“I failed to implement the tactics I had planned,” he whispered, after wiping away tears of frustration.
In the absence of a medal, there will still remain, as a small consolation, the satisfaction of having beaten Vieru.
“It was the third time I took it, I had lost twice even though it had been hot, we did a lot of video work and in the end it was good I respected the tactics, I I made a mistake on my initiative, he made a mistake,” explained the 28-year-old judoka.
In a close fight, the two opponents were forced to go into overtime. From the start of the golden score, Bouba managed to effectively hook the Romanian.