The boss is in place!
Teddy Riner won the Grand Slam in Budapest on Sunday, where he made his return to individual competition a year after his bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Coming to Hungary to gauge himself on the road to the Paris-2024 Olympics where he will aim for a third individual Olympic title, the 33-year-old Frenchman beat the Dutchman Jelle Snippe in the final by ippon after an expeditious fight won in less than 40 seconds.
The Frenchman, ten times world champion, had already won his first three fights of the day over 100 kg without much difficulty.
The 33-year-old judoka was therefore opposed for the title to Snippe, ten years his junior, who had climbed to the final to everyone's surprise.
The Batavian did not even deceive.
He was overtaken by the power of the tricolor champion.
Paris 2024 in sight
Riner had dominated in the semi-final the Georgian Gela Zaalishvili, 8th in the world, under the encouragement of his relatives, who came in large numbers to Hungary.
He won with commitment after 1 min 24 sec of combat.
The outcome could have been even more expedited since the central referee had given ippon to the French after 33 seconds of confrontation before being disavowed by the table judges.
Riner had not appeared on the international stage since the Tokyo Olympics last summer.
He left Japan with an individual bronze medal and a team title.
Since then, he has only participated in the French Team Championships with his PSG club in November 2021 in Perpignan, then in Villebon-sur-Yvette in May, winning all his fights each time.
He aims at the Paris Olympics, in two years, a third individual Olympic title.
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