Hopefully no one drops their cell phone on the snow or ice in Beijing. This is what many might think after hearing about the unusual event that stole the media’s attention on the first day of the Judo Grand Slam in Paris.
The protagonist: the French Priscilla Gneto, a world-renowned judoka, London-2012 Olympic medalist and 2017 European champion in the 57 kg.
Gneto was fighting against Japan’s Momo Tamaoki for a place in the final on the tatami of the Parisian Accor Arena.
In a moment of grappling during the fight, a cell phone slipped out of the Frenchwoman’s judogui and fell to the mat. The Japanese woman picks up the device and hands it to the referee.
The fight is stopped. Disbelief seems to reign among the protagonists. The referee hesitantly makes signs to the judges’ table. Then he gives the cell phone back to Gneto and from the center of the tatami he makes a gesture with his hand to declare the runner-up of the world, Tamaoki, the winner and immediately indicates the disqualification to the veteran local judoka.
The unexpected outcome occurred with two minutes and 22 seconds to go. Up to that moment, the Frenchwoman had been active on the offensive and suddenly the world came crashing down on her because of an oversight, as she later told the press.
Gneto had a mitigating factor despite the penalty: her disqualification was not considered a dangerous action and she was able to win the bronze medal against Mongolian Lkhagvatogoo in her next bout.
Usually before stepping onto the tatami, judokas place their belongings in a basket. She told reporters that she was following the competition when she received a call and by conditioned reflex she put her cell phone back in her uniform.
“Overall, apart from this incident, I had a good day. I can’t do anything about it anymore. Next time I will touch my pockets well before entering the tatami,” he told L’Equipe.
“These are the vagaries of life, I wasn’t going to be left with a phone call and no medal. It happened, but there was a third place to go for, to bring the team back, that’s all I had in mind.”
Gneto acknowledged that he should have received reprimands from his coaches. “Honestly yes and it would be deserved. Everyone will make fun of me for a long time, but that’s it, it happened.”
Apart from this event, the 2022 international judo circuit opened with several thousand spectators on Saturday, February 5, at the Parisian stadium in accordance with sanitary protocols and an even better day for Japan, which won four of the seven crowns in dispute in the first of two dates. France, Mongolia and Georgia won the other three titles.
France’s Gneto is not the first case among judokas in a major competition. Another bad moment faced in May 2019 the Portuguese Anri Egutidze when he dropped his cell phone in the middle of the fight against the Swedish Robin Pacek during a Grand Slam, this one based in Baku, Azerbaijan.
As it was considered an illegal act to have the phone in his judogui, Egutidze also suffered a disqualification loss. Instead of Ippon... it was Iphone.
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