Audrey Tcheumeo is the French candidate for the Olympics

Audrey Tcheumeo was the real MVP of the category. Audrey has a Tcheumeo, exuding confidence and a sincere love for the challenge. The Bercy loves her and appreciates her CV. From her first step on to the field of play the spectators sent her all their power and she soaked it up, blasting through the draw. A bye and 3 almost inevitable wins took her directly to the final. Her opponent for that final is French Chloe Buttigieg, who in turn passed the 5th seed Lee and number one seed Guusje Steenhuis (NED) to reach her first grand slam final.

In the final the crowd were delighted to be able to follow an all-French fight between Chloe Buttigieg, who has no grand slam medals, and podium stalwart Audrey Tcheumeo, 2011 world champion and 15-time grand slam medallist. It should have been a one-way street but Buttigieg was clearly not going to buckle, regardless of the gravity of her achievement in front of the gathered public.

Both women showed exemplary mental toughness and a willingness to give their all. Tcheumeo won in the end with a throw in golden score but her final moment on the tatami was to celebrate her opponent’s great day in Paris. Audrey showed on her hands that this is a pleasing 6th Paris title for her, joining an incredible cast of names who’ve done the same, from Lebrun to Agbegnenou.

The first bronze medal looked to be heading to Korea with Yoon after a kata-guruma put a waza-ari on the board after only 53 seconds but we know Guusje Steenhuis isn’t afraid of hard work and she stayed in the contest, never letting her effort drop. With a minute to go she launched an aggressive left uchi-mata and even things up. It then went to golden score and the same work ethic was applied.

Steenhuis threatened with the uchi-mata again and again and there wasn’t much of an answer, edging each exchange closer to the Dutch woman. Penalties decided it and Steenhuis took a deserved win.

On the mat next door, Yoon’s teammate, Jeongyun Lee, was leading the poce against Portugal’s Patricia Sampaio, winner of the recent Portugal Grand Prix. Lee went one better than Yoon and took the win and therefore a bronze medal for Korea.