Montreal, September 28, 2013 – Michael Fortin-Demers and Béatrice Valois-Fortier both achieved fifth place finishes Saturday at the European Cup in Belgrade, Serbia.

On the tatami in the Under 73 kg class, Fortin-Demers won three victories in five bouts.  Thanks to an Ippon, he bettered three fellow judokas: Slovakia’s Adam Gazo, Serbia’s Nenad Bogdanovic and Hungary’s Nobert Kiss. France’s Arthur Clerget – and his Yuko – put a stop to the Quebec native’s rise in the semi-final; in one of the bronze medal rounds Serbia’s Jovan Mirkovic scored an Ippon and deprived Fortin-Demers of a medal. 

“The French athlete who beat me in the semi-final and went on to win the entire competition – I know him very well. We’ve had a few bouts together and this was the first time he had the upper-hand,” explained Fortin-Demers.

“I had the podium in my sights, so of course I’m upset but I’m going to stay positive and be happy with my performance today. I realized that all the guys here today – I could feasibly beat them,” concluded the 20 year-old judoka.

Béatrice Valois-Fortier was able to skip the first round in the Under 63kg category, and then went on to beat Serbia’s Katarina Denic with an Ippon. Sadly, Valois-Fortier then suffered a defeat by Waza-ari at the hands of Italy’s Valentina Giorgis in the semi-final, and then was beaten by Serbia’s Marijana Nikolajevic with a Yuko in their bronze medal round.

“I also was looking forward to stepping on to the podium today, so a fifth place finish is a disappointment.  However I feel that I had a solid competition today, even more so given that I hadn’t competed against any of these athletes before,” commented 19 year-old Valois-Fortier.

Valois-Fortier’s next stop is the World Junior Judo Championships, set to take place October 23-27 in Ljublana, Slovenia.

In the Under 52kg category, Audrée Francis Méthot earned herself a seventh place finish. Benefiting from a pass into the first round, she lost due to penalties against British Columbia’s Samantha Clark. A bout against Austria’s Anna Dengg put a final end to Méthot’s day, again due to penalties.

Charles Breton-Leduc stepped onto the tatami with a pass into first round in the Under 60kg category, and ended his day in ninth place. France’s Sylvain Goulet – who would go on to winning the gold in the category – defeated the Quebecer with a Yuko. 

In overtime Breton-Leduc won with an Ippon over Slovenia’s David Starkel, but was again halted, this time by Austria’s Bernhard Lang, who won by virtue of penalties.

Quebec’s Simon Ashwood-Smith (Under 66kg) and Vincent Marticotte (Under 73kg), were both ousted in their first bout.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada