Montréal, January 17, 2015 – Quebecois judoka Étienne Briand came away with a bronze medal in the under 73 kg class, Saturday, at the African Open presented in Tunis, Tunisia.

“It was a good day and I’m happy with the result. Many Europeans made the trip so the competition was at a pretty decent level,” pointed out Briand, who made his way on to the podium thanks to a victory over the Italian Marco Maddaloni.

“It was definitely my biggest win of the day. I managed the match fairly well but he still found a way to score a yuko. I replied with a waza-ari of my own not too long after. I took some penalties near the end while I was ahead, but that was part of the game plan,” he elaborated.

The Montrealer began his tourney with a convincing win over the Italian Ermes Tosolini. He then went on to defeat the Frenchman Ludovic Cavallera, who had beaten Arthur Margelidon in the round prior. In the semifinals, Briand succumbed to defeat versus the eventual gold medalist, the Frenchman Guillaume Chaine.

“I fought well in the first two bouts that I won, but I lost on penalties to the Frenchman. He was very physical and I wasn’t able to handle his power,” Briand explained.

Also in the under 73 kg category, David Ancor walked away with a 7^th place classification. The Montréal-native chalked up victories against the Spaniard Ares Herrero Osorno and the Algerian Oussama Djeddi before dropping his quarterfinal contest to the Italian Andrea Regis. Ancor then went on to lose in the repechage versus Marco Maddaloni.

As for Alexis Morin-Martel, he lost by ippon in his opening match, falling to the Belgian Sami Chouchi.

In the under 60 kg division, Youssef Youssef made quick work of the Saudi Arabian Eisa Majrashi in his first bout. The Ontarian would unfortunately be eliminated in his next fight, falling to the Moroccan Yassine Moudatir, who won with an ippon.

 On the women’s side, Ecaterina Guica was beaten in her very first bout in the under 52 kg class. The Montrealer succumbed to defeat at the hands of the Frenchwoman Aurelia Issoumaila.

The Albertan Jaquina Simao suffered the same fate in the under 63 kg category, where she lost to the Frenchwoman Anne-Laure Bellard in her opening contest.

Canadians Monika Burgess (- 70 kg), Alix Renaud-Roy (-70 kg), Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi (- 78 kg), Zachary Burt (- 81 kg), Jonah Burt (- 90 kg), Robert Edward (- 90 kg), Marc Deschênes, (- 100 kg) and Martin Rygielski (+ 100 kg) will all be in action on Sunday.

By Sportcom for Judo Canada