PARIS (France): France’s double Olympic and serial judo world champion Teddy Riner was beaten for the first time in over nine years on Sunday.
Riner, who came into his home Grand Slam with a 152-0 record since 2010, was stunned by Japan’s Kokoro Kageura in the third round of Paris Grand Slam, the International Judo Federation said on its website.
Ten-time world champion Riner’s record ranks alongside some of the greats of the sporting world.
American hurdler Ed Moses won 122 consecutive races over a 10-year period from 1977 to 1987, and Pakistani squash legend Jahangir Khan won 555 successive matches from 1981 to 1986.
Judo’s heavyweight icon Riner, 30, was returning to action for the first time since winning gold at the Brasilia Grand Slam in October in search of qualification points for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. His last defeat came at the hands of Japan’s Daiki Kamikawa in 2010.
The 10-time world champion made a low-key start by beating Hungarian youngster Richard Sipocz on shidos in golden score before seeing off Stephan Hegyi by ippon in additional time.
World number 10 Kokoro gave Riner a tough time in their first meeting in Montreal last year, but the Frenchman prevailed after five minutes of golden score by a wazai-ari score from a harai-goshi.
This time Kageura was not going to be denied and beat the Frenchman on home soil to silence the sell-out crowd by countering Riner with a uchi-mata-sukashi after 40 seconds of golden score.
Japanese legend Kosei Inoue, who now leads his country’s men’s team and is a former opponent of Riner, was unusually animated in the coaching chair as he witnessed his latest charge Kageura make history in France.
