Montréal, February 14, 2015 – Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-57 kg) showed well in her first competition of the year, walking away with a 3rd place finish at the European Open of Oberwart, presented in Austria.

The Saint-Hubert native had to qualify through the repechage for her bronze medal match, where she took on the Italian Martina Lo Giudice. The latter took two penalties in the bout, which eventually came back to haunt her.

“The level of competition was very high in her category, with two Olympic medal winners joining her on the podium,” coach Jérémy Le Bris indicated. “Catherine didn’t have a particular goal set for today, she just wanted to get her bearings. Her focus, for the most part, was to try things we’ve been working on. I’d say that after watching her win a bronze medal, she more than accomplished her goals today.”

“I’m satisfied with my day because I tried and learnt new things,” the Quebecoise explained. “I wanted to use this tournament as preparation for the upcoming Grand Prix in Dusseldorf next week. To that end, I feel like I accomplished my objectives today. My biggest focus was working hard at being more precise on the ground, and more active when standing.” 

Beauchemin-Pinard began her day with a win over the Swiss judoka Émilie Amaron. She dropped her next bout against the Chinese Yang Liu after taking a penalty, but rebounded in the repechage with a victory over the Taiwanese Chen-Ling Lien.

“Even in her loss to the Chinese judoka, Catherine completely dominated the match in all aspects. It was only due to one tiny error that the Chinese came away with the win,” Le Bris added.

“I fought hard against the Chinese, but the penalty I took at the beginning of the bout caught up to me in the end, and I was never able to recover,” Beauchemin-Pinard elaborated. “My next fight went much better, though, and in the finale against the Italian, I followed Jeremy’s game plan to a tee. I dominated her, even though I wasn’t able to score any points.”

Elsewhere, Stéfanie Tremblay (-63 kg) lost in her first bout, falling to the Austrian Magdalena Krssakova by a penalty.

Meanwhile, the men were in action in Rome, Italy. Arthur Margelidon (-73 kg) was eliminated in his 4th match of the day, a repechage bout versus the German Igor Wandtke. The latter came away victorious by way of an ippon.

Margelidon put in strong performances in his first two fights, victories over the Turk Islam Ali and the Italian Ermes Tosolini, before succumbing to defeat versus the Pole Damian Szwarnowiecki. The Montrealer would eventually finish the tourney with a 7th place classification.

Sept-Îles native Étienne Briand (-73 kg) also lost to Szwarnowiecki, losing to the Polish judoka in the first round.

Antoine Bouchard (-66 kg) of Saguenay was eliminated in his second bout, falling at the hands of the Georgian Tornike Tatarashvili by ippon. Bouchard had earlier beaten the Russian Akop Akopyan in his opening match.

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