Joan-Benjamin Gaba won the gold medal (-73 kg) this Sunday in Budapest. A controlled day and an individual first coronation for French.
A day in gold: Joan-Benjamin Gaba dreamed of it after the Olympic Games, it is now a mission accomplished. This Sunday at the Worlds in Budapest, the Frenchman won in the -73 kg category. With a pressure that went up throughout the day – 2’31 “spent on the carpet for his first fight against the local Szegedi, then 8’09” in the quarter -finals against Makhmadbekov – Gaba imposed his style. Taken twice to the Golden Score before the final, he chained five ippons and a waza-ari. In the final, Gaba dominated the Brazilian Daniel Cargnin after a very tight duel.
It was at the Golden Score that the French made the difference on a counter. A double European bronze medalist, GABA wins an individual first title, the first of a French in this category. After having shone in Paris last year, the Frenchman who had already had the success by mixed team with four silver medals with the Blues (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) seizes gold in Hungary. After the third day of competition, it is the first French gold medal harvested.
Bronze cysics, Fawaz goes out on stretcher
The gold won by Gaba is the third French medal in these Worlds in Budapest. This Friday, Romain Valadier -Picard in the -60 kg category had taken the money at just 22 years old. This Sunday, Sarah-Léonie Cysique, for her part, took bronze. Like her accomplices, the Frenchwoman wins a first individual medal. At 26, judokate took the best on Uzbek Shukurjon Aminova, when she lost earlier to Japanese Momo Tamaki in the semi-finals. Olympic medalist twice individually (2nd in 2021, 3rd in 2024), it was at the Golden Score that victory decided for cysics.
On the other hand, Martha Fawaz lived a more complicated day. Eliminated in the first round, she was evacuated on a stretcher after having lost consciousness on the strangulation of her opponent. DTN Sébastien Mansois still reassured the entourage of judokate. “More fear than harm. Martha is fine, she is especially disturbed of having fallen into apples in front of everyone, that is what worries him the most. »»
