In the category – the men’s -73kg – the most undecided with a view to the selection process for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Paris Grand Slam did not provide extremely clear lessons. But Joan-Benjamin Gaba could however have taken a small advantage by going one lap further than his main competitor, Benjamin Axus, while Guillaume Chaine, Olympic team champion in Tokyo in 2021, may have said goodbye to his dream by disappearing as soon as he entered the fray against the Brazilian Gabriel Falcao.
Opposed to Kazakh Daniyar Shamshayev in the round of 16, Joan-Benjamin Gaba ended up losing on a waza-ari during the golden score. But previously, he was able to pass two rounds by dominating the Lithuanian Kestutis Vetkauskas on ippon and the Moroccan Hassan Doukkali, 2023 African champion, on three penalties. Benjamin Axus, therefore, failed a round earlier during a fight that he seemed to master with two penalties to the disadvantage of his opponent, the German Alexander Gabler. But he managed to find the opening on a strangulation having the value of ippon.