Montreal, October 27, 2017 – Canada’s Emily Burt earned the country’s highest standing on Friday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in the United Arab Emirates, finishing fifth in the -63 kg group on the second day of competition.

In her battle for bronze, the Oshawa native lost by ippon to Poland’s Agata Ozdoba in less than 25 seconds.

“My competition went well. It was my first grand slam tournament and I’m happy with it. I would have liked to win the bronze medal, but it was a learning experience. My match was okay. I felt pretty confident. I was expecting it to last longer than it did. I had a strategy and I was really prepared, but I was caught off guard. I definitely feel that I’m close to winning a medal. Next time, I’ll be more aware and mentally sharp,” stated Burt.

Burt had a record of two wins and one loss in her earlier matches. In the preliminary rounds, the Ontarian beat Austria’s Magdalena Krssakova by ippon but lost by waza-ari to Italy’s Edwige Gwend, who went on to win the gold medal. In the repechage, Burt eliminated Kiyomi Watanabe of the Philippines with a victory by ippon.

Illness Forces Briand to Withdraw

The pride of Sept-Îles, Étienne Briand, placed seventh in the -81 kg category. His day came to a halt in the repechage, when he withdrew from his match against Iran’s Saeid Mollaei.

“It wasn’t a great day. I had food poisoning two nights ago and I lost a lot of weight. I still wasn’t feeling well today. I didn’t show up to the repechage after Michel Almeida and I agreed that I was far from being in good enough shape to compete. There was no way I could win. I was worried I might get sick on the mats,” Briand explained.

Earlier in the day, the Québécois had claimed victories by waza-ari over Russia’s Murat Khabachirov and Morocco’s Achraf Moutii before being thrown for an ippon by Frank De Wit of the Netherlands. De Wit later went on to win the gold medal.

In -73 kg action, Montreal’s Arthur Margelidon recorded one win and one loss; he therefore did not rank. In his match against Khikmatillokh Turaev of Uzbekistan, he disposed of his opponent during Golden Score. However, he bowed out to Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium in his subsequent combat.

“I should have beaten the Belgian. In one sequence, I made an attack where I ended up getting him into an arm lock, even though that wasn’t my intention. His arm got stuck in the judogi so when I went in for the attack, it made for a forbidden move. I was disqualified. I found that decision a bit harsh because I was feeling good. I thought I’d get a shido and win the bout. This was the third time I lost to him, but twice there have been contentious calls by the referee. We need to learn from our mistakes!” concluded Margelidon.

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Patrick Esparbès
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p.esparbes@judocanada.org