Montreal, March 10, 2018 – Albertan judoka Joel Demaere was the best-performing Canadian athlete today with a seventh-place finish in the -60 kg category at the Cadet European Cup in Zagreb, in Croatia.

He started the day by defeating Swiss Ramon Pinto, Italian Alessandro Rossi, and Hungarian Daniel Szegedi. He then lost by ippon during his fourth fight, against Israeli Eylon Barsheshet, leading him in repechage.

After winning his first fight in repechage by waza-ari against Latvian Andrejs Skomorohovs, his day ended with a loss by ippon against Russian Khvicha Mesablishvili.

“I felt pretty good, but I think that I could have done better. Overall I’m satisfied, but I’m not super happy. I have to work on staying more focused, not making mistakes during the matches and not getting too emotional,” commented the 16-year-old judoka.

Two ninth place

Arno Blacquière (-55 kg) won his first two fights by ippon before losing against Ukrainian Vladyslav Kazimirov. He went into repechage and won his first fight by ippon in overtime against Guy Gutman, from Israel, but lost the second fight against Daniel Leutgeb, from Austria, leaving him in 9^th position.

Erik Vandersanden (-60 kg) also ended in 9^th place. After winning his first fight by ippon, against German Luis Schmidt, he was quickly defeated by Serb Mateja Stosic, after only 7 seconds. He also had to go in repechage, where he won his first two bouts before losing by ippon in the third fight, against French Maxime Gobert.

Bogdan Jora (-66 kg), Sarah Maloum (-52 kg), and Emilija Ema Tesanovic (-48 kg) all had one victory and one loss. Jasmin Bélanger (-50 kg), James Lonsdale (-66 kg), and Cecilia Marie Medilo (-48 kg) were eliminated after their first fight. None of them got a ranking.

One of the Canadian coaches, Alexandre Émond, was satisfied with his athletes today, and believes they gained more experience.

“They fought well in general. We’re a pretty young team, and the athletes don’t have a lot of international experience, so they did pretty well. It’s encouraging to see that they were able to win a few fights here and there.”

Di Bartolo quickly eliminated in Morocco

Alexandre Di Bartolo, the only athlete representing Canada at the Agadir Grand Prix, in Morocco, was defeated in the first round on Friday, against Goncalo Mansinho, from Portugal, in the -60 kg category.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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