Clarisse Agbegnenou world champion for the fifth time – Zsolt Szigetvary / AP / SIPA
She writes a little more about the history of judo. Frenchwoman Clarisse Agbegnenou won her fifth world title on Wednesday, the fourth in a row, beating Slovenian Andreja Leski by ippon in the final of the Budapest World Championships in the -63 kg category.
Agbegnenou will be in contention this summer at the Tokyo Olympics where she will aim for the gold medal which is missing from her huge list of achievements. Now five-time world champion and five-time European champion, the Frenchwoman failed in the final of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
First French medal in the world
Already crowned at the 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Worlds, Agbegnenou (28) is no longer very far from the three most successful judokates in the history of the world championships: the Japanese Ryoko Tani, the Chinese Wen Tong ( seven titles each) and the Belgian Ingrid Berghmans (six).
With this victory, it also offers the French team its first medal at these world championships.
What to say
As announced from the start, 2021 will be the year of all possibilities and this stage in the du championship was essential for my final goal👊🏾💥
Simply THANKS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chaaaah! 💪🏽 Here we go again for the last straight line #RoadtoTokyo ⚡️💥🚀✨ pic.twitter.com/OuoFqbWhpl
– AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@ Gnougnou25) June 9, 2021
“I’m happy to have gone for this fifth star, this fifth title. In the preparation, I see that there are things that are going. We must continue this momentum. (…) I’m going to work a little more standing up to be ready for the Games ”, declared the one who had badly experienced the postponement of the Olympics:“ I never thought I would be so low, in my life, in my career. I almost wanted to stop everything, I was there ”.