Montreal, February 11, 2012 (Sportcom) – Canadian judokas Frazer Will and Alister Ward made only a brief appearance at the Oberwart World Cup in Austria, this Saturday, as both competitors were unable to achieve a final ranking.

Still growing into the 60kg category, Frazer Will was eliminated in his first match when Russia’s Dmitriy Kulikov dolled out an ippon in 3 minutes 29 seconds.  Will dominated the combat – however without being able to score a point – and the Canadian was surprised by the single and only attack from his adversary.  Kulikov’s attack send Will to the mat – and signalled his defeat.  The weight division was won by the Democratic Republic of Georgia’s Betkil Shukvani, who bested the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Ilgar Mushkiyev in the final; Korea shared the third step on the podium between athletes Jin-Min Jang and Won-Jin Kim.

In the Under 66kg category, Alister Ward won his first bout against the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Tarian Karimov (currently ranked 13^th in the world) with two Waza-ari – the first in a sweep, the second in a throw.  “There was a lot of action at the beginning.  I followed Nicolas (Gill)’s advice and I didn’t make any mistakes,” explained Ward.  “I had a good warm-up with Frazer and I also had a good hour between the weigh-in and the match to rehydrate and eat,” added the Canadian, who has remedied his in-competition weak spells with a solid warm up.

Despite early successes, Ward was eliminated in the second round, courtesy of Hungary’s Zsolt Gorjanacz – a difficult match.  “He attacked me without me really feeling like I was in danger, it felt like there was nothing I could really do,” commented Ward.  Canada’s flag bearer was defeated with a Waza-ari, resulting from three accumulated penalties, after having completed five minutes in regulation time.

In this weight class, France’s Pierre Duprat won the gold medal; Tomofumi Takajo of Japan earned the silver medal, and the bronze was shared between Mongolia’s Altansukh Dovdon, and Korea’s Jun-Ho Cho.

Sunday, Kalem Kachur and Antoine Valois-Fortier will take to the tatamis in Oberwart.  Marylise Lévesque and Catherine Roberge will also be in action in the Budapest Judo World Cup in Hungary.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada