Gold medal for Gevrise Emane at Grand Slam Tokyo

What a story for Gevrise Emane, taking the gold medal at such excellent field of the Grand Slam in Tokyo. This year evolved well and exploded in a fantastic apotheosis. The French judoka won the category U70kg in which she was a World Champion in 2007. After her successful career in the U63kg division where she also won the world title in 2011, she stepped up seriously this season. Only last year she won a bronze medal with the French team U70kg, but thought about the chance to get back for real.

At 6 December she did herself a big favour by winning in the Tokyo Dome, where in 2010 she won silver U63kg after her loss against Agbegnenou.

Even at the respected age of 32 she is still not in for retirement, which she proved in Tokyo, at the highest stage of the podium U70kg. A difference of one yuko brought her success against she defeated a mixture of talent and world class athletes such Kim Polling of the Netherlands, even it was second round we could say that this was her final match of today. That final was against Haruka Tachimoto, the one who earned most dollars in the IJF Tour ever. But now had to bow for French Gevrise.

A new career unveiled this year when she started with modest events and won gold in Casablanca and Sofia, collecting the first points for a comeback at the World Ranking. In January she was ranked 72. She jumped quickly to the top 50 although she didn’t participate at the Grand Slam of Paris.

She couldn’t impress in Samsun in March but contributed to the European team title in April although she had an disappointing individual tournament.

The sweet part came in the end of the year with victories at the French Championships, Jeju and Tokyo. Two weeks ago she jumped from 40 to 22 and will now be the best seeded French in the World Ranking passing Fanny Posvite. The third rivals in France is Margaux Pinot, although all will get chances next year. For now Emane set the tone addressing her ambitions for Rio 2016, the city where she won the world title in 2007 and won bronze in 2013 still U63kg. The Asia trip paid out.