Montreal, September 11, 2016 – Étienne Briand, from Quebec, and Zachary Burt, from Ontario, both came in fifth in their respective weight classes in the European Judo Open of Tallinn, Estonia.

Briand, who in 2016 moved up to the Under 81 kg from the Under 73 kg division, is slowly climbing the rungs of the international ranking.

So far this year he has snatched bronze medals at the European Cups of Saarbrücken (Germany) and Orenburg (Russia). In Tallinn, he won his first three matches, before succumbing in the semi-finals, and then losing his fight for one of the bronze medals.

Brian eliminated Finnish Klaus Verlin by penalties in his first bout. He then beat Sweden’s Olle Mattsson by ippon, and Poland’s Karol Kurzej by waza-ari. But in his way stood Brazilian Rafael Macedo, who scored a yuko against him in the semi-finals. Another Brazilian, Eduardo Yudi Santos, stole the bronze away from him with an ippon.

“Before I lost to (Macedo), my day was going great,” said the Montrealer, originally from Sept-Îles. “I was lagging behind the Polish guy and I bounced back. I was pretty happy with that fight. Macedo brought his A-game today. I fought okay, but he was stronger on the grip and on the attack.”

“In the bronze fight, I made a huge mistake,” said Briand, who was aiming for the podium in Estonia. “I pretty much threw myself on my back. It was a fight I could have won, so I’m pretty disappointed not to finish with a medal.”

Meanwhile, Zachary Burt won two out of four matches in the Under 90 kg class.

He started out his day with an ippon over Ukrainian Viktor Makukha, only to be served one of his own at the hands of Belarussian Ihar Zhukau in his next match.

In the repechage round, the Montrealer, who hails from Ajax originally, got in a waza-ari to beat Ukraine’s Daniil Dovbysh. In the fight for the bronze, Latvian Aigars Milenbergs scored an ippon and kept him from getting his hands on a medal.

Laval’s Marc Deschênes was also supposed to be hitting the Tallinn European Open mat, but suffered an injury during training in Germany and wasn’t able to represent the country this Sunday.

Next on the schedule for Briand, Burt and Deschênes is the Grand Prix of Zagreb, Croatia, between September 23 and 25.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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