Teddy Riner returns to international competition by winning Paris Grand Slam

Teddy Riner is back – and back on the top step of the podium.

France's triple Olympic champion in judo, competing internationally for the first time since an injury waylaid him last summer, secured the men's +100kg crown in front of a jubilant home crowd at the Paris Grand Slam.

He defeated Japan's Ota Hyoga, the Tokyo Grand Slam champion at this weight category, in the final – which was also the first head-to-head between the two.

In the final bout, Ota picked up two quick shido warnings. Although Riner also collected one of his own, the Japanese was unable to cope with the Frenchman's grappling and conceded a third shido warning with 57 seconds left in the bout, handing the win to Riner.

While it was not the ippon the crowd had come to see, they had still got their wish – their man had won the big prize in front of a jubliant home crowd, in the Bercy Arena which will be a host venue at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, although not for judo.

Riner had earlier reached the final by overcoming Bahrain's Azamat Chotchaev and Kazakhstan's Adil Orazbayev by ippon (uchi-mata) in both the second and third rounds, before defeating Azerbaijan's Dzhamal Gamzatkhanov in the quarter-finals with a waza-ari (o-soto-gari) in golden score.

His semi-final against Uzbekistan's Alisher Yusupov ended early after the Uzbek received three shidos, resulting in a disqualification from the bout.

This was the Frenchman's return from a right ankle injury sustained while training in Morocco last summer, which also caused him to miss the World Championships in October.