Montréal, September 21^st, 2013 – Audrée Francis Méthot placed 3^rd in the under 52 kg category, Saturday, at the Judo European Cup presented in Tampere, Finland.

After receiving a bye through the first round, Francis Méthot went on to beat the Frenchwoman Élodie Grou with a waza-ari. In the semifinals, the Russian Antonina Tovstetskaya defeated the Quebecer by ippon.

In one of the two bronze medal matches, the Quebecoise would come out on top against the Swiss Svenja Appenzeller.

Tovstetskaya would come away victorious in the grand finale, in a division that boasted just six judokas.

“It was a good outing for me. I was in good physical form, and I was mentally well prepared,” mentioned Francis Méthot, who despite the medal was disappointed by the lack of competitors in her weight class.

“Since we were less than eight, this result won’t allow me to get the points requested for the carding (from Sport Canada). So it’s disappointing. But the girls were strong and I still walked away with some much needed experience.”

Also on Saturday, in the under 73 kg division, Michael Fortin-Demers classed 7^th while Vincent Marticotte finished 9^th.

Fortin-Demers and Marticotte both benefitted from opening round exemptions, with the former coming away with a victory by ippon over the Lithuanian Mantas Jakubavicius while the latter took down the Finn Juho Nurminen with a yuko.

The two Quebecers would drop their second tilts however, both against Dutchmen. Fortin-Demers fell to Sam van T Westende by a waza-ari while Marticotte came up short versus Tjeerd Tjeerdsma, losing by ippon.

In the repechage, Fortin would take out the Finn Otto Simola by an ippon, but Marticotte would see his competition come to an end, losing to the Italian Alfredo Mezzadra by ippon.

In one of the two qualifying bouts for the bronze medal matches, Fortin-Demers would eventually succumb to defeat at the hands of the Russian Mikhail Naniy, who claimed the victory by way of an ippon.

Naniy and Sam van T Westende would both walk away with bronze medals in the under 73 kg class.

In the under 63 kg category, Béatrice Valois-Fortier lost both of her bouts. The Quebecoise began her day with a loss to the Dutchwoman Antoinette Hennink by ippon, before falling in the repechage to the Russian Ekaterina Valkova, also by ippon.

Hennink would go on to claim top honours in the gold medal bout.

The Quebecers Simon Ashwood-Smith (-66 kg) and Charles Breton-Leduc (- 60 kg) were both eliminated in their opening matches.

The same group of Canadian judokas will take part in the Belgrade European Cup, presented next weekend in Serbia.

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 Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada