Montreal, December 14, 2019 – After a perfect beginning of the tournament, Shady El Nahas was defeated twice by Russian opponents and had to settle for the seventh place in the -100 kg category at the Qingdao Masters, in China, on Saturday.

After winning by ippon against Belarusian Mikita Sviryd and Latvian Jevgenijs Borodavko, El Nahas was through to the third round, where he faced Russian Niyaz Ilyasov.

The eventual bronze medallist was the first to defeat the Canadian: he won by ippon after a little over three minutes on the clock. “Ilyasov is a strong opponent! He won the silver medal at the World championships last August, and even though Shady did well, the Russian did better,” explained Sasha Mehmedovic, the Canadian team coach in Qingdao.

Despite his defeat, El Nahas could still reach the podium. He would have to defeat Arman Adamian, another Russian, in repechage. Even though he was in control for most of it, the Ontarian couldn’t score the winning point in the bout that went into overtime.

“Shady was truly in control, but he tried an attack in golden score and his opponent took advantage of it to score an ippon. It’s a shame, because he did very well today (Saturday) and I think he could have reached the podium,” added the Canadian coach.

On top of being defeated, El Nahas suffered a knee injury at the end of the last bout. “It’s still too early to know what kind of injury it is. We’ll know more in the next few days,” said Mehmedovic.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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