Montreal, August 23, 2015 – Canadian judokas Jessica Klimkait and Martin Rygielski will not come home empty-handed from the Deva Junior European Cup, in Romania. Both of them earned the bronze in their respective classes.

Competing in the Under 57kg, Jessica Klimkait was off to a great start and won her first two matches, against Italian Samanta Fiandino and Israeli Adi Grossman.

Up against British Bekky Livesey in the semi-final, the Ontario judoka took two penalties in the four-minute match, and was subsequently relegated to the battle for the bronze. “She made a few mistakes during the match,” said national coach Pedro Guedes.  

The Whitby athlete didn’t miss her last chance to get on the podium, beating Italy’s Giulia Caggiano by a single penalty.

On the men’s side, Martin Rygielski also won his first two matches in the Over 100kg. He beat Czech Daniel Uher by ippon, the same treatment he reserved for Romanian Andrei Buda.

The Ontario athlete then got a taste of his own medicine, losing by ippon to Romanian Mircea Croitoru and Israeli Viazeslav Obedin. His two-out-of-four record placed him third in the competition.

“Martin started out strong, but then had trouble with the Romanian and the Israeli,” said Guedes. “He did his best, but it wasn’t enough to rank higher.”

Bradley Langlois was also on the mat in Romania, and finished seventh in the Under 73kg.

The Oshawa judoka won his first bout, against Romanian Alexandre Tihoc, but then succumbed to British Connor Ireland. In repechage, Langlois got to dispose of Italy’s Rene Villanello before losing for the second time in the day, to Finnish Aku Laakkonen. 

“Bradley didn’t achieve his goal, which was to make podium,” mentioned the coach. “He still lacks a bit of the experience it takes to win the tighter matches.”