For the first Worlds of her career, French judoka Manon Deketer won the bronze medal in the under 63 kg category on Sunday in Tashkent. Deketer, 24 and 18th in the world, beat Polish Angelika Szymanska in the repechage final, who precedes her by three places in the standings, on waza-ari.
Taking advantage of the absence in her category of the five-time world champion Clarisse Agbégnénou, in the recovery phase after maternity leave, she had obtained her qualification for these Worlds thanks to her good results this season, in particular in Grand Slams.
A second French medal after Amandine Buchard’s bronze in -57 kg
Exempted from the first round, she started the day with a serious fight against the modest Uzbek Sevinch Isokova before eliminating the Dutch Sanne Vermeer, bronze medalist at the last Worlds. She then crossed the quarter-finals by immobilizing the Romanian Florentina Ivanescu.
But in the semi-finals, she did not find the solution against the world No.3, the Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, who sent her to repechage. She brings France her second medal in these Worlds, after Amandine Buchard’s bronze in -57 kg on Friday.