Montréal, July 20, 2014– After watching her teammate Antoine Bouchard procure a silver medal in the under 66 kg category on Saturday, it was Monika Burgess’ turn to shine, as she too climbed to the second step of the podium at the Junior European Cup of Judo in Wroclaw, Poland. The Kitchener-product finished second in the under 70 kg class on Sunday.

In the finale, Burgess fell by an ippon to the Dutchwoman Sanne Lisa Van Dijke. Even though this would turn out to be her only loss in five matches, Burgess had mixed emotions after the competition came to an end.

“I’m proud to have won this medal, but at the same time I would have liked to have done a bit better. I felt really strong right out of the gate, and I had a good run all the way to the final where I should have been a bit more confident and focused. The gold medal was there for the taking.”

En route to the finale on Sunday, the eventual silver medalist defeated, in order, the Pole Paulina Przycyna, the German Miriam Butkereit and the Dutchwoman Yvonne Odink. In the semifinals, the Ontarian got the better of the German Lisa Dollinger, winning by an ippon.

“I’ve been going up against a lot of senior judokas of late, and it had been a while since I had competed in a junior tournament, Burgess added. Despite that, I wouldn’t say that it was any easier, though.”

Ana-Laura Portuondo-Isasi, (-78 kg, 2-2) and Sophie Vaillancourt (+78 kg, 1-1) both took home 7^th place finishes in their respective divisions.

Taking part in the under 63 kg class, Eugénie Lemieux and Béatrice Valois-Fortier both lost in their first bouts and neither came away with a classification.

On the men’s side, Martin Rygielski (1-2) was the only Canadian to receive a classification, finishing 7^th in the over 100 kg category.

Louis Krieber-Gagnon (-81 kg, 1-1), Jonah Burt, (-81 kg, 0-1) and Ryan Proulx, (-100 kg, 0-1) did not classify.

-30-

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada