Montreal, October 8, 2016 – Emily Burt was the best-placed Canadian judoka in Belgrade, Serbia’s European Cup this Saturday. She came in fifth in the Under 53 kg class.

Burt started out her day with an ippon victory over Polish Dominika Blach. Her second bout saw her beat Croatian Maja Blagojevic by waza-ari. In her last preliminary round match, she was served an ippon by Macedonian Katerina Nikoloska. In the repechage round, she lost to Hungarian Krisztina Polyak by ippon and then to Polish Aleksandra Langiewicz by waza-ari.

In the fight for a bronze medal, Burt bowed out to Germany’s Sheena Zander, who won the match by waza-ari.

Montrealer Marie Besson‘s day in the Under 52 kg began with an ippon loss to Finnish Katri Kakko. In her repechage match, she took three penalties and lost to France’s Cécile Herate. Both her and Erin Morgan, from Calgary, didn’t place in the competition. Morgan, competing in the Under 48 kg, was eliminated after her first match of the day to Romanian Alexandra Pop.

Ups and Downs for the Men

After a bye from the Under 73 kg opening round, Warren Seib beat Norwegian Martin Thiblin by ippon. In his next match, the Saskatchewan athlete lost, also by ippon, to Russian Aslambek Gekhaev. In the repechage round, it took only 42 seconds for Hungarian Gyula Pal to get an ippon in to eliminate Seib who finished in 13th place. 

In the same weight division, François Gauthier-Drapeau, from Alma, also received a bye from the opening round, and also was eliminated after one match, after taking three penalties against Italian Augusto Meloni’s two.

On Sunday, the judokas representing Canada in the competition are Alix Renaud-Roy (Under 70 kg), Jérémie Poirier (Under 81 kg), Louis Krieber-Gagnon (Under 90 kg) and Kevin Gauthier (Over 100 kg).

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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