Montréal, September 27, 2014 (Sportcom) – Despite their best efforts, The Canadian judokas were unable to come away with a medal on Saturday, at the European Open presented in Tallinn, Estonia.

“The Canadian team put in a good fight today, but no one was able to reach the podium. We started off a bit slow and the competition was pretty difficult. I really thought we would be able to come away with medals today, but it just didn’t happen for us,” indicated Scott Tanner, who was the coach present at the tournament in Tallinn.

The Quebecer Audrée Francis Méthot was the top Canadian on the day. She took home a 5^th place classification in the under 48 kg category. She lost her first match against the Belorussian Katsiaryna Nakhaenka before defeating the Italian Angela Giamattei. She succumbed to defeat in the bronze medal bout, falling to the Israeli Noa Minsker.

“Audrée had a decent outing today. She performed well, but she fell behind quickly in the bronze medal finale and was unable to mount a comeback,” Tanner explained.

“Overall I’m disappointed with how things went today, because I really felt like I was more than capable of beating the girls on the podium. I just didn’t do it. It was also an important competition for me because I could have obtained my Judo Canada certification, but things didn’t go like I planned. Hopefully I can turn it around in my upcoming tournaments,” Francis Méthot said.

In the same division, Leonida Sheffield finished in 7^th place. She lost her two bouts against the Israeli Noa Minsker and the Mauritian Priscilla Morand.

The Quebecer Charles Breton Leduc saw his day come to an end in the repechage. He was eliminated by the Israeli Ido Bar and ended up settling for a 7^th place classification. He had come away victorious earlier in the day versus the Estonian Vadim Fomin and the Israeli Paz Liebermann before falling to the Frenchman Vincent Limare.

In the under 73 kg class, Étienne Briand was eliminated in his very first bout, losing to the Belorussian Valery Khudayeshka.

“It just wasn’t my day today. I was leading by a waza-ari with a minute left in the fight when I got thrown to ground. I didn’t want to risk taking a penalty since he had me in a good grip, but I was in a bad spot and I ended up getting caught out. It was a big disappointment,” commented Briand after his bout.

Alix Renaud-Roy (-70 kg), Martin Rygielski (+100 kg) and Zachary Burt (-81 kg) will all be in action on Sunday in Tallinn.

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By Sportcom for Judo Canada