Montreal, July 14, 2019 – The day was cut short for Canadian judokas Mohab El Nahas and Zachary Burt on Sunday at the Budapest Grand Prix. Both were fighting in -90 kg, and neither of them got a ranking.

Mohab El Nahas, 53^rd on the world ranking, started off strong after winning by ippon against Chinese Xuewen Wang. “In this fight, Mohab El Nahas proved he was better than his opponent, both tactically and technically,” said national team coach Michel Almeida.

El Nahas couldn’t keep up and was eliminated by ippon in the next round against Dominican Robert Florentino, ranked 26^th in the world.

The Canadian and the Dominican had recently fought each other in a bronze-medal match at the Pan American Championships held in Lima last April. Florentino had also won that bout. “From previous results, it was fair to assume the Dominican would be the stronger one today. Mohab would need to be flawless to win the fight, and today was not yet the day for him to perform like that,” explained Michel Almeida.

“I had already fought him at the Pan Ams, so I was ready and knew what to do, but he surprised me with a move I never saw him do before and he scored. I’m looking forward to the rematch already, and I’ll be working a lot harder to be able to beat strong opponents like him,” commented El Nahas.

Zachary Burt, ranked 28^th in the world, also fought the same opponent he had faced during the bronze-medal match at the Pan American Championships, Peruvian Yuta Galaterra Villar. Unlike his teammate, Burt had won his bout and the bronze medal in Lima.

This time, Villar, 50^th on the world ranking, defeated him. “We were expecting a better performance from him,” said Almeida.

The Ontarian was defeated by waza-ari, prematurely ending his tournament. “The Peruvian was in a better shape today. He caught me in the beginning and I was unable to come back to tie and force overtime, or to score a full point,” explained Burt.

The Canadian team leaves the Budapest Grand Prix with a medal for Kelita Zupancic. The Ontarian judoka stood on the third step of the podium in the -70 kg category on Saturday.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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Patrick Esparbès
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Judo Canada
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