Defeated in the tenth match by their FLAM 91 opponent in the opening round of these playoffs, the Essonne club was this time able to count on its young squad to defeat Arts Martiaux Saint-Gratien, who were semi-finalists last year. At the same time, the Grand Est alliance proved to be the strongest, remaining undefeated at the expense of the Maralpins.

Saint-Geneviève Sports / Martial Arts Saint-Gratien : 6-3 (504-114)
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (91)
November 3, 2026

At the foot of the Champions League podium held at the Dojo de Paris at the end of October, the group of Édouard Gingreau and Antoine Lamour set out once again to conquer the Judo Pro League with the firm intention of increasing their winning streak during this encounter against Arts Martiaux Saint-Gratien. Ilona Depri (-70kg) thus perfectly launched her team by immobilizing Tanita Djuric with her sankaku-jime, but her teammate in the -90kg category Avel Coutin, a recent winner of the 2024 Cormelles-le-Royal Junior Excellence Label, left the victory in suspense to the French junior champion Jason Okoye. The Rouge et Blanc immediately took the lead thanks to her junior continental medalist in -78kg in 2026, Lucie Rullier (+70kg), who had led the way but whose acceleration in the second half of the fight surpassed the Dutch champion Paulien Sweers, European U23 champion in +78kg in 2025: in the same sequence, she scored a yuko on ashi-guruma, then on o-uchi-gari, taking the lead at the final gong. There was no scoring in the +90kg category between Cédric Olivar, the only 30-year-old to compete on this evening, and Kévin Virgina, while the Italian Kenya Perna (-52kg), who won a medal for the first time at a Grand Slam in Douchanbé last May, had two chances to take down Cloé Riboulon to bring the two teams back to level before the break.

A second half of cannonball action
His compatriot Angelo Pantano was then engaged in his wake to take the better of Maxime Ignaczak with a small yuko scored on a rapid kata-guruma, allowing the Valdoisiens to lead for the first time in the match (2-3). This was enough to wake up the Génovéfains, who took advantage of the opponent’s absence in the -57kg category to immediately regain the lead. Better still, the last three matches all went in their favor: thanks to the beautiful uchi-mata/sumi-gaeshi combination of Marven Bamana-Kibiti (-73kg) first, then the commitment of the very young Isciane Dye (-63kg), junior French champion 2025, rewarded with less than ten seconds to go before the end of her fight against Mailys Rozan by a chance seized in juji-gatame, before Lucas Fouquet-Pertusa (-81kg) came to put the finishing touches on a morote-seoi-nage to ippon. 6-3 for the Essonne team, who are now in the standings – doubling their victim of the day in points – before two upcoming trips to the Stade Bordelais (10 December) and the JC Pontault-Combault (12 January). For Saint-Gratien, the rest of this fifth season will be played at home, with the visits of Juniville Marnaval Grand Est (4 December) and Arts Martiaux d’Asnières (15 January).

Juniville Marnaval Grand Est / Judo Nice Métropole: 5-1 (403-103)
Rethel (08)
November 3, 2026

After earning its first three points against Stade Bordelais in mid-October (5-5, 413-213), Juniville Marnaval Grand Est has this time tightened its grip to defeat Judo Nice Métropole, the finalist of the fourth season.
Five days after losing her final at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, the 2024 Olympic medalist Amandine Buchard (-52kg) was back on the mat, this time in the Ardennes, and did not hesitate to defeat Léa Métrot on the ground and pin her in immobilization. The 2023 French junior champion Simon Lesauvage and the 2025 French senior bronze medalist Driss Masson Jbilou were then going head-to-head in -66kg, before parting ways on a hikiwake. Aligning in -57kg and -73kg – a category above their usual playing field, Julie Weill-dit-Morey needed only forty-eight seconds to impose her morote-seoi-nage on Héloïse Grimont, while William Cysique ended the fight with all his might against the Briton Benjamin Levy, third at the last Grand Slam in Paris.

The case wrapped up in seven meetings!
The two following fights – Clara Wentzler/Rania Drid in -63kg, Nicolas Chilard/Irakli Beroshvili in -81kg – resulting in no-contest matches, the seventh fight of this evening, an international clash of high quality between the German Miriam Butkereit, Olympic vice champion in Paris, and the Swede Ida Eriksson, seventh in the last world championships in Baku, was going to prove decisive. Impressive on the ground, Butkereit was playing without fear against Eriksson and already sealed the victory for her team, who left almost nothing to chance since only the +70kg fight was to fall into the hands of the Niçoise, through the German Maria Sophia Hoellwart, winner of the penalties against Ninon Lassalle. A meager consolation for the Azurians, who will have to make up for it in front of their home crowd against the Arts Martiaux d’Asnières (December 8th) and Venelles Judo 13 (January 12th) in order to hope to reach the Final Four as they did in the previous four seasons. On the other hand, Juniville Marnaval Grand Est will be the leader in their home ground, facing Arts Martiaux Saint-Gratien (December 4) and FLAM 91 (January 13).