I am so happy today of course, because Noel Van T End won an absolutely amazing world title. You always want that to happen and when it does you are just thrilled. Last time a male Dutch athlete won the title was twelve years ago. I am happy that we have a new member in our little club of world champions (Dennis van der Geest was world champion in 2005 in Cairo in the open division).
Noel is a perfect example of what I regularly say: you don't have to be the best judoka in the world, you have to win the competition. He did it today, and with style. Especially in that category. If you take Ono, in -73kg, he is so strong, and so on a different planet than anyone else in his category, that if you organise the competition 10 days in a row, he will win every single day, without any doubt. In the men's -90kg, this morning there were like a dozen competitors who could be world champion. Tonight it's Noel who did it, but it could have been many others.
Noel is not a super star, may be he will become one from now on, but the most important thing is that he is a true judoka, who is capable of throwing. In this category, several athletes are real powerhouses. Take Nemanja MAJDOV (SRB) or Axel CLERGET (FRANCE), they are so strong, but they don't throw that much.
But when you see Van T End in the semi-final, he was absolutely exhausted, almost dead, but when everyone believed that he would get penalized a third time, he produced one of the most beautiful movement of the competition to score Ippon and win his ticket to the final. Amazing! When he did it, it was the first time during that match, that he had an opportunity to throw. He immediately transformed it into something magical. This is what I call a true judoka.
I know Noel. I know that one of his weaknesses was his kumikata, his gripping. In the past, he lost important competition, because he didn't have the power to control the grip. But during one year, he worked, he worked really hard on that, and this is the reward of one year of hard training to reinforce his capacity to control the opponent. Hats off!
Something also very interesting that I notice today with Kim POLLING (NED) and it was the same with Tina TRSTENJAK (SLO), yesterday. They were both disqualified for applying an armlock while throwing, which can be dangerous of course for the opponent. I am convinced that they didn't do it on purpose. 100% sure, it was just an 'accident', a mistake, but a mistake with consequences. I think that today's athletes have to ask themselves the question: should I continue to use techniques that if something goes wrong can turn into something potentially dangerous for my opponent.
The decision to disqualify POLLING and TRSTENJAK was harsh, especially since they were disqualified for the rest of the event, but I would seriously change those sode-tsuri-komi-goshi, the way they are done with one hand for instance, because it's silly to be disqualified for something I did consciously, unconsciously, voluntarily or involuntarily and that I am responsible of. A few years ago, those techniques were not visible, but now it happens more and more.
I am happy for the French delegation. They had an amazing day. It's important, France is a big judo nation, and it's always a bit sad to see that they don't perform. Today they did and that is good for judo. The French ladies are good and still perform regularly, but it's more difficult for the men. Clerget's medal is simply a good news for France and for judo. When I was an athlete I was always bothered by French Athletes. I want today's athletes to have the same feeling that I had.
It's quite impressive to see that to date, there are 22 nations with a medal though. I was quite pleased with Marcus NYMAN (SWE) he was really good especially in ne-waza. That made me think of one thing: there are no shidos in ne-waza. If you are passive in tachi-waza you get penalized, but not on the floor. This is kind of strange in a way. That would be a revolution, but maybe in the future we will think about it. Anyway, it was again a great day of judo, a great day for my country, 55 years after Anton Geesink won the Olympic title here, we have again a Dutchman on top of the world. Congratulations Noel.