Montreal, February 22, 2020 – A day after Jessica Klimkait’s splendid win in -57 kg, things were a little harder for Canadian judokas in action at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam, in Germany, on Saturday.

Étienne Briand (-81 kg) and Arthur Margelidon (-73 kg) both scored a win, but didn’t get a ranking.

Briand started the day off with an ippon against Costa Rican David Guillen Vargas, but was defeated in the same way by German Dominic Ressel, who went on to rank in fifth place.

Margelidon defeated Italian Giovanni Esposito by ippon in overtime. In the next round, he was eliminated by ippon by Moldavian Victor Sterpu.

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kg) and Antoine Bouchard (-73 kg) were both eliminated after losing their first match.

“Yes, today was a more difficult day,” said coach Sasha Mehmedovic. “I feel it was hard for some athletes to perform today, because this is the last competition of the European tour. For some athletes, it was their third competition in four weeks, and mental fatigue was definitely a factor today (Saturday).”

However, the coach doesn’t think things need to change after this day.

“Most of the athletes here are in a good position for the Olympics. Some of them are chasing seeding positions at the Olympics, so a good performance here would have helped for sure,” he added.

Antoine Valois-Fortier should have been competing in the tournament, but he decided not to for health reasons.

“He got injured at the Paris Grand Slam (where he placed third in -81 kg) and we decided it was better for him not to compete. It was the best decision for him,” said Mehmedovic.

Zach Burt (-90 kg), Mohab El Nahas (-90 kg), Shady El Nahas (-100 kg) and Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) will be representing Canada on Sunday.

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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