At 8am on Saturday the 21st of December, two hours before the doors of the FDI Stadium opened, avid judo fans and clubs alike were lining up at the ticket office, hoping to get a seat to watch their national heroes compete in the grand finale of the year, the European Club Championships – Champions League 2024.
The city of Montpellier already proved that they could fill an arena, delivering one of the most sensational European Championships in recent years back in 2023. Today, they did it again. With Olympic, World and European medallists stretching off, warming up and warmly greeting one another after a well deserved post-Olympic break, the crowds began filling the seats, taking photos with the legendary mascot, Kokomo, and making themselves comfortable, ready to be the top supporters.
Before we mention the heavy hitters, local heroes must also be addressed, those from Montpellier Judo Olympic include the current senior national champion in the +100kg category, Angel GUSTAN, a notable rising star for France Judo.
Teams from Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, Austria, Türkiye and Luxembourg all aligned, ready to tackle one of the strongest judo nations, not only in Europe, but in the world. However some of the French clubs have some international assistance…
The star-studded team of Paris Saint-Germain can boast of the likes of Teddy RINER and Romane DICKO in their heavyweight positions, but they have also called up Olympic silver medallist and recent Tokyo Grand Slam winner, MURAO Sanshiro (JPN), as well as Olympic bronze medallist, Alisher YUSUPOV (UZB) and ISHIHARA Tatsuki (JPN) to help bring about the Champions League title.
French Olympic medals are not all contained in PSG however, with Paris 2024 Olympic Games underdog, Maxime-Gael NGAYAP HAMBOU in the -90kg category representing A M Asnieres. This is the first occasion his club has competed in the Champions League, and although during the warm up, Ngayap had lofty goals for his team, they were sent to the repechage by PSG. In fact, the crowd were treated in this round, as they saw the Olympic semi final rematch between their eventual Olympic bronze medallist and Murao.
Among the French superstars, we have current and former World Champions in the -70kg category; Margaux PINOT and Marie Eve GAHIE, both of whom earned Olympic Mixed Team medals along with Walide KHYAR and Alpha Oumar DJALO. Georgian team, Golden Gori have rallied some of their superstars; including Olympic silver medallist and current European Champion, Vazha MARGVELASHVILI and former World Champion, Luka MAISURADZE. Red Star Belgrade contains a number of their national team’s mixed team members who battled to European bronze in Zagreb this year, but have also swiped a World Champion from Cuba, Andy GRANDA.
Of course, most of the eyes in this arena are for the ultimate champion, five-time Olympic Champion including two Mixed Team titles, and two-time Olympic bronze medallist, 11 World titles to his name as well as five European, Teddy RINER. Not only a hero for France, but an icon for World Judo, the Frenchman has stayed on top of his game since winning the Senior European Championships in Belgrade 2007, making his mark on the judo community and beyond.
Without having stood on the tatami yet, Paris Saint-Germain have already earned their place in the semi final against Judo Ukraine who made the ultimate comeback against SGS Judo in their respective quarter final. On the other half of the draw, Red Star Belgrade secured their semi final place against Judo Nice Metropole, who also worked wonders in the quarter final, 2022 Junior European bronze medallist Alya DE CARVALHO was defeated in her first contest by Eteri LIPARTELIANI (GEO), but in the random draw, faced off the Georgian athlete and came out the victor!
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen