On the road to a second Olympic title in Paris in the -63 kg category, Clarisse Agbégnénou continues her ideal preparation with a victory at the Grand Slam in Tashkent, Saturday in Uzbekistan, a month after winning the one in Paris.
Thanks to two arm locks, in the semi-final then in the final against the Japanese Nami Nabekura and Momo Tatsukawa, the 31-year-old Frenchwoman won her second Grand Slam of 2024 in as many tournaments.
Agbégnénou had already set “things straight” with gold at the Paris Grand Slam on February 3, after his disappointing 7th place at the European Championships in November.
Having become a six-time world champion in 2023 after her maternity leave, she once again proved that she liked long fights: in the quarter, semi and then final, it was in overtime, beyond the regulatory four minutes, that she won.
In the 8th, in the semi and then in the final, the Frenchwoman gained the upper hand over her opponents thanks to ground techniques.
Even if several of her main opponents at the Games were not present, such as the Japanese Miku Takaichi, this new success will allow Agbégnénou to move up in the Olympic ranking with the aim of arriving among the eight seeds at the Olympics -she was 12th before the tournament.
All smiles, the Frenchwoman celebrated her victory by miming a cradle with her arms then an “A” with her fingers, a reference to her daughter Athena, born in 2022.
Agbégnénou had won another fight at the start of the week, outside of the tatamis: during the Olympics, rooms in a hotel near the Olympic village in Saint-Denis will be made available to French sportswomen who are breastfeeding, as is her case.
We should see Clarisse Agbégnénou at least once before the Olympics (July 27-August 2 for judo), at the World Championships in Abu Dhabi (May 19-24), where she will put her title back on the line.