Montreal, September 22, 2019 – Mohab El Nahas’s and Zachary Burt’s paths quickly came to an end on Sunday at the Tashkent Grand Prix, in Uzbekistan. The former was eliminated after his second fight, while the latter was surprised from the outset by a crowd’s favourite.

Fighting in -90 kg, Mohab El Nahas injured his elbow during the warm-up, just before his first match. He still took part in the action and defeated Egyptian Ali Hazem, but couldn’t win against his second opponent, Belorussian Yahor Varapayeu, 29^th in the world ranking. “I couldn’t do much against him,” said El Nahas. “He was a lot heavier than I am, and all his moves were on my injured elbow. I would like to face him again soon to get my revenge.”

The Canadian judoka hopes his injury isn’t too serious, as he’s planning on competing at the Luxembourg European Open next week and the Brazil Grand Slam in October. “I’m hoping it’s nothing serious. I haven’t seen a doctor yet, but I can move my hand,” he explained.

Fighting in the same category, Zachary Burt lost his first bout of the day against Davlat Bobonov, from Uzbekistan. Despite a good preparation, Burt, ranked 30^th in the world, was surprised by the power of his opponent, who’s ranked 71^st in the world. “I had never fought him before, but I watched a lot of tapes and I had a good strategy going into the fight. However, I didn’t expect him to be so powerful.”

“His explosive power was off the charts,” added the 26-year-old. “I was never comfortable or able to threaten him with some kind of offence.” As expected, the crowd was cheering loudly for Bobonov during the fight, but Burt didn’t let it bother him.

The athlete will get back to training to get ready for his next tournament in Australia in November.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

Information:

Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org