Clémence Eme Seizes Gold in Kazakhstan After Reading the Final Perfectly

Clémence Eme left Kazakhstan with the -70 kg title after a composed and sharply executed final against Miriam Butkereit of Germany. The French judoka arrived with momentum after taking bronze in Dushanbe the previous week, and in the gold medal match she looked ready for every exchange.

Butkereit had been one of the standout athletes of the day on her way to the final. The German Olympic medallist attacked with power, gripped confidently and gave the impression that she intended to control the category from start to finish.

The final changed quickly. Eme stayed calm under pressure and seemed to read Butkereit’s attacks almost before they developed. Early in the contest, she countered at the hip for a yuko and nearly added osaekomi-waza in the same opening phase, immediately putting the German under pressure.

One sharp early score set the tone for the whole final.

From there, Eme never really let the match drift away from her. Butkereit searched for answers, but nothing she tried came close to unsettling the French athlete. Eme’s judo was built on strong tactics, awareness of her opponent’s intentions and clear control of the contest situation, and that early advantage carried her to gold.

The win meant more than just one medal. After the final, Eme said she had considered retiring from judo two years ago and is now moving toward the world top ten. She also pointed to lessons learned from Dushanbe, saying her main focus in Kazakhstan was to avoid mistakes.

She added that she felt surprisingly energetic and was pleased to bring new techniques from training into competition, including ura-nage. Eme also underlined how important it was to stay focused on groundwork defence against an opponent of Butkereit’s level.

For European judo, the category brought several strong results. Butkereit took silver for Germany after an impressive run to the final, while Sanne Van Dijke of the Netherlands claimed bronze in dominant style.

In her bronze medal contest, Van Dijke controlled the match against Giorgia Stangherlin of Italy from the beginning. She scored a first Waza-ari just after the opening minute and then transitioned cleanly into the hold to secure the medal.

The second bronze went to Nauana Silva of Brazil, who defeated Aleksandra Kowalewska of Poland. Their contest was fast and aggressive, but the decisive score only came near the end, when Silva took the lead with an o-uchi-gari for yuko.

The final standings at -70 kg saw Eme on top, followed by Butkereit in second place. Van Dijke shared the bronze level with Silva, while Stangherlin and Kowalewska finished fifth.

Kazakhstan delivered a final where anticipation and timing mattered more than volume.

Source: IJF.org

Image source: IJF / International Judo Federation