Through Ile de France editorial staff
Published on 21 Nov 20 at 17:09
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Judokate Madeleine Malonga was sacred European champion in less than 78 kg this Saturday, November 21 in Prague. This is the second time that the Etoile Sportive de Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) licensee has obtained this title after her first victory in 2018.
Judo: the French Madeleine Malonga crowned European champion for the second time in -78 kg #AFP #AFPSports pic.twitter.com/EatcQJIDVL
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) November 21, 2020
She beat German Luise Malzahn on penalties in the final after nine months without competition.
After her victory in 2018, Madeleine Malonga was crowned, the following year, world champion by beating the Japanese Shori Hamada, defending champion, by ippon in the final.
The reigning world champion and world No. 2 in the category brings the French delegation its fourth gold medal in the European competition, the seventh overall. Romane Dicko, qualified for the final of +78 kg, will try to add a fifth title to the blue harvest, eight months before the Tokyo Games postponed to the summer of 2021 by the Covid-19 pandemic.
No more fighting since February
In the three-way match in which she engages with Fanny-Estelle Posvite and Audrey Tcheuméo, in the race for the only Olympic sesame at stake, Malonga thus maintains her favorable position. Neither Posvite, hit in a shoulder, nor Tcheuméo fought on the Czech carpets.
Against an opponent who did not succeed and against whom she had experienced three of her four defeats in 2019, Malonga won in the penalty final after three minutes of fighting.
She also won her first match of the day on penalties.
Between the two, she had accelerated by emerging victorious from the following two by ippon, facing the Polish Beata Pacut and the Kosovar Loriana Kuka.
Before this Saturday, Malonga had not fought since his victory at the prestigious tournament in Paris in early February. The outbreak of the new coronavirus then led to confinement, postponement of the Olympics-2020 to summer 2021 and long interruption of competitions.
And a minor knee sprain prevented her from returning to competition during the first post-confinement tournament on the world circuit at the end of October in Budapest.
With AFP
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