Venelles Judo 13 vs Arts Martiaux Saint-Gratien: 3 – 7
Venelles (13)
October 1st, 2026

Semi-finalists for their first participation last season, the Valdoisiens continue their good form by winning with authority in Venelles in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

Invited to open the duel this Thursday 1^er In October, Beyhane Poaty and Tayla Grauer kicked off the evening with a ne-waza lesson around sankaku-jime. Although the one by the young Poaty, fifth place a few days ago at the Rochefort senior tournament, lacked precision, the one proposed by the twenty-one-year-old German, finalist of the European open in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July, was clear and led to a winning immobilization. Esteban Martins, a transfuge from Montpellier Judo Olympic and newly integrated at the INSEP, was also taken by surprise on the ground by the Italian Tiziano Falcone, who forced him to surrender on ude-gatame. Two quick points for Saint-Gratien, who then turned to Lyse Versmisse (+70kg) to face Anne-Fatoumata M Bairo, whom she had already dominated last year when she represented Juniville Marnaval Grand Est. A bis repetita thanks in particular to her knee-swoop that gave her a waza-ari after a minute of combat. The hiza-guruma by the Venelloise at the end of the match was not enough, due to a yuko that the 2023 French champion had already taken on ko-uchi-gari.

The Azerbaijani rebellion
At 0-3, Venelles already knew he was in danger, but he remained in the fight against a powerful hiza-guruma from the Azerbaijani colossus Camal Feyziyev (+90kg), who was unable to contain the national bronze medalist (series ongoing) Khamzat Saparbaev. His compatriot Farida Mirzayeva (-52kg) then faced the current French champion Pauline Cuq, also crowned in the Judo Pro League a few months ago with AC Boulogne-Billancourt, who overwhelmed her with shoulder movements to easily win the fight. Nothing to make the Olympic-selected Yashar Najafov laugh, who prevailed by a yuko on a subtle tsubame-gaeshi against the volatile Italian Angelo Pantano (2-4). The -57kg entered the action then, with the bronze medalist from the last French championship second division taking advantage of the time gap in the middle of the fight to regain her composure and score immediately after the resumption with an o-uchi-gari/uchi-mata combination. The fifth point was in the Francilienne’s pocket, who then sent on the battlefield Bryan Mbianda, the French university champion last March and seventh in the French first and second divisions championships. Facing him, the fourth Azerbaijani from Venelles, Nariman Mirzayev, a medalist of the 2023 European U23 Championships, started strongly with a valued-less waza-ari counterattack, but seemed to tire under the energy expended by his opponent, to the point of wondering how he would manage to maintain his advantage. A less sharp attack from Mbianda was enough to slip under him in uchi-mata, putting him in an ideal position to finish with an immobilization.

The three points and the top spot in the standings
However, Venelles’ third point of foreign reinforcements was not enough when Maylis Rozan, who had moved up to -63kg to compensate for various injuries in the Gratien team, imposed her uchi-mata and then tai-otoshi on Sylhia Mayila to put her team out of reach. The knee-swoop of Italian Bright Maddaloni Nosa (-81kg) after a long minute of combat against the local captain Benjamin Constant offered a sumptuous final point in this match, which allowed Arts Martiaux Saint-Gratien to take the lead in the overall points standings (522 yesterday). The message is clear: their path for the 2025/2026 season was not due to luck and they will again have to rely on the troops of Youssef Drif and Ouassini Bentot this year.