Dugasse (facing camera) won two individual titles

MAYBE you know the purposes of a bandage as described in any dictionary, but on Saturday April 24, inside the Roche Caïman Omnisports Gym, Praslinois Dominic Dugasse made another use of it.

The bulky 19-year-old judoka had a bandage on the head, not to fake injury so that his opponents would go slow on him, but to keep his braids intact and he bullied all his rivals, including the hard-to-knock-down Gerard Baker, on the way to winning two individual titles in the Curtain-raiser competition.

The Praslinois, with a body weight of 90kg, won the 100-kg division at the expense of 82kg Baker (two waza-ari) and 100kg Jean-Marc Serret (ippon).

In the Open category, Dugasse again squared up with Baker in the quarterfinals.

If the more-experienced Baker, silver medallist at last year's Sixth Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Mauritius, and bronze medallist of the -81-kg division of the ninth edition of the Mauritius International Tournament in March this year, thought he could avenge his earlier defeat, he was in for another surprise.

Dugasse, who lost both his fights in his first participation in the IOIG last year, looked more composed on the mat and moved swiftly to score with an ippon after only 55 seconds gone in the bout which was to last five minutes.

Then Dugasse met Lesley Philoé in the semifinal and he had no difficulty eliminating him by ippon to clash with Robert Valmont in the final which had a David v/s Goliath proportion.

Despite being lighter, Valmont, a very good technician who competes in the -66-kg division but misses training too often, made Dugasse sweat for the gold medal.

In fact, Valmont could tame Dugasse for two minutes and 27 seconds (2:27), after which he had to concede defeat on an ippon.

With the Open title in his collection, many in the judo circle could be asking if Dugasse has taken over from fellow Praslinois and hard man Ralph Souffle, who retired from the sport last year after winning a bronze medal at the IOIG.

"I'm happy with the two individual titles. It represents something big for me to beat Baker (Gerard) twice in the same competition. I expected this result as I trained seriously – five times a week for the competition. My aim is to be the best," Dugasse told Sports Nation.

The following are the other results:

Senior male -60-kg: 1st Richard Meriton (four wins by ippon), 2nd Hidney Pasandji, 3rd Nelson Laporte, joint-fourth Paul Hétimier and Emmanuel Michel.

Cadet male -73-kg: 1st Basil Dick, 2nd Bryant Florentine, 3rd Kenny Freminot.

Cadette female -44-kg: 1st Padi King, 2nd Pamela Labonté.

Junior female -63-kg: 1st Lionla Litters, 2nd Venessia Lapolice, 3rd Sujethar Clethar.

Minime male -60-kg: 1st Daniel Athanase, 2nd Marcus Laurencine.

Cadette female -52-kg: 1st Franceska Rose, 2nd Natasha Barra, 3rd Tahiri Nicholas.

Minime male -50-kg: 1st Franky Marcel (four wins), 2nd Darrel Tirant, 3rd David Rose, fourth Bernard Morel, fifth Randolph Didon, sixth Julien Camille.

Senior male -66-kg: 1st Kevin Florentine (four wins), 2nd Naddy Jeanne, 3rd Robert Valmont, fourth Ian César, fifth Nelson Bijamal.

Senior male -73-kg: 1st Luigi Rose, 2nd Lesley Philoé.

G. G.