Montréal, October 9, 2011 – Thanks to a victory by ippon versus the Hungarian Franciska Szabo, Ontarian Kelita Zupancic took home the bronze medal in the under 70 kg category, Sunday, at the Judo World Cup competition being held in Minsk, Belarus.

The Canadian judoka, ranked 11^th in the world, easily won her first two bouts of the day, taking down both the Russian Irina Sordiya and German Anne-Kathrin Lisewski by ippon.

Her only loss of the day came at the hands of the Ukrainian Nataliya Smal, 22^nd worldwide, a defeat by ippon in the semifinals.

“My goal is always to win gold, but I’m still pretty satisfied with the result.  Even more so when you consider that I haven’t really adjusted well to the jetlag.  I managed to get the job done and it feels great to find my way on to the podium.  It’s a really good primer for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix coming up this week,” Zupancic pointed out.

Things didn’t go nearly as smoothly for Frazer Will, in action Saturday, at the Baku World Cup in Azerbaijan, in the under 60 kg weight class.

After benefitting from a first round bye, the Quebecer was dropped by way of ippon against the Iranian Ehsan Bahramian Khayat.

“I felt pretty good during the warm-up.  My section of the table was quite wide open, but I wasn’t able to take advantage.  I’m pretty disappointed with my result and also how I was beaten.  I hope I can turn it around and put together a good performance in Abu Dhabi next week,” explained the Quebecer, currently ranked 29^th in the International Federation of Judo.

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