Montreal, October 20, 2018 – Canadian judoka Shady El Nahas almost stood on the podium on the last day of competition at the Junior World Championships in Nassau, in the Bahamas. He’ll be coming back home with a 5^th place in the -100 kg category.

“Shady was coming here to win a gold medal, so he’s really disappointed. I also think he could have won that medal. It was an okay performance for him, but he was lacking a few techniques, and that’s why he didn’t get it. When competing at that level, you don’t get a second chance,” commented the Canadian coach Jean-Pierre Cantin.

El Nahas was facing Georgian Onise Saneblidze in the bronze-medal bout. The Georgian was declared the winner of the bout after the 4 minutes of regulatory time, leaving the Ontarian in 5^th place.

“The Georgian was very physical. Shady tried a few attacks, but the other one scored a waza-ari. He tried to get back in the fight, but he couldn’t find how, and the Georgian kept his advantage. Shady had trouble finding the right angles to attack.”

In the preliminary rounds, the Toronto native eliminated by ippon American Daniel Pavlov and Russian Denis Bakanov. He then lost in the third round against Japanese Kiyokata Sekine. El Nahas went through repechage, where he won by ippon against German Daniel Zorn.

“Shady fought well against the Japanese, but sadly, it wasn’t enough to win. He was ahead with a waza-ari, but then, the Japanese created a strong attack and when Shady tried to counter, his opponent scored an ippon,” explained his coach.

“It’s a shame, because the fight against the Japanese cost him the gold medal. I think that if he had won that fight, he would have been in the finale and he could have won.”

Ontarian Allayah Copeland (-78 kg) and Albertan Joe Casey Andres (+100 kg) didn’t get a ranking. Both were eliminated by ippon in their first fight Copeland facing the Hungarian Fanni Toth and Casey the Austrian Stephan Hegyi.

“They were both up against strong opponents. The Austrian went on to the finale, and the Hungarian finished in 7^th place,” added Jean-Pierre Cantin.

Malaga European Cup

Ontarian Bradley Langlois ended in 5^th place at the Malaga European Cup, in Spain, in the -73 kg category. During his fight for the bronze medal, German Hamsat Isaev won by waza-ari. Earlier, in repechage, Langlois eliminated Italians Diego Cressi and Reni Villanello by ippon. In the preliminary rounds, he had two victories and one loss.

In the same category, Saskatchewanian Warren Seib lost his first fight by ippon against Australian Sam King and didn’t get a ranking.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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