Sarah-Léonie Cysique paid tribute to the ephemeral Grand Palais in which the Olympic judo events are held: she only needed nine seconds, out of four minutes of regulation combat, to knock her Japanese opponent onto her back after having blocked the support foot. A lightning attack which set the Grand Palais on fire.
In the semi-final, scheduled for after 4 p.m., the Frenchwoman will face another favorite, the Canadian of Japanese origin Christa Deguchi, double world champion.
Exempted from the first round because she was seeded, the 26-year-old fighter needed two minutes and forty seconds to beat the Guinean Mariana Esteves in her first fight, thanks to two waza-ari, worth ippon.
They secured the first French medal of the Paris Olympic Games. But dream of much bigger things. Antoine Dupont and the Blues dominated South Africa (19-5) in the semi-final of the Olympic Games on Saturday afternoon and will compete for the Olympic title in the evening (7:45 p.m.) with the winner of the match between Fiji, double holders of the title, and Australia.
A meeting started, as for the quarter-final against Argentina on Thursday evening, in the stands during the previous meeting. The classification match between Ireland and the United States was marked by “Allez les Bleus” and an intense “Marseillaise”, just to warm up before the most anticipated moment of the afternoon.
A tense match, tense by the stakes and disturbed by the rain of the first Saturday of these Olympics, in the muddled first period.
Brilliant Thursday against Argentina, scrum half Stephen Parez-Edo missed during the first seven minutes on a forward and an incorrect touch. Put under pressure at the end of the first period, he and his partners only escaped thanks to the activity of the powerful Andy Timo, who came to disrupt a Blitzboks offensive, only to go into the break with a 0-0.
But the liberation comes very quickly from a breakthrough from Varian Pasquet, who strides back up the field before calmly serving Rayan Rebbadj to take the lead (7-5, 11th). The machine is launched.
Well served with a clever pass from Dupont, Rayan Rebbadj doubles the lead (14-5, 14th). Before Jordan Sepho scored a third try to make the Stade de France scream with joy (19-5, 15th).
The public performs a cappella “Light the fire” by Johnny Hallyday, launched by the DJ. His Blues are where he hoped: playing for the gold medal at the start of the evening.
