Toronto, July 12, 2015 (Sportcom) – Canadian judokas Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard and Antoine Bouchard climbed onto the second step of the podium in their weight classes, whereas Arthur Margelidon snatched the bronze on Sunday night, at the Toronto Pan-American Games.

Beauchemin-Pinard, ranked 11^th in the world, was up against American Marti Malloy in the Under 57kg final. Malloy, 6^th in the world, won the final match with a yuko. 

“I know I can beat her – I’ve done it three times,” said the Saint-Hubert athlete. “Today was the third time she’s beaten me too, so I hope next time I can regain my advantage!”

“I have to work on my psychological strategy in my fights with her, so she can come at me instead of being more defensive, because that’s a kind of judo I have a harder time with,” she added. “I think she knows that, so she took advantage of my weakness to beat me.”

To reach the final, she disposed of Brazil’s Rafaela Silva, 4^th in the world, in the semi-final. “She was world champion in 2013, and I just beat her for the first time and I’m really happy. We studied her judo and managed to employ the strategy we devised, and it worked. I had to push until the very end.”

“She starts out really strong, but closer to the third or four minutes she opens up her game a bit more, which I used to get more opportunities during the match,” said the athlete, who breezed through her first match of the day, against Cuban Ojeda Aliuska.

On the men’s side, Antoine Bouchard, 16^th in the world and Under 66kg gold medallist at the Edmonton Pan-American Games of last April, made it to the final match and then lost to Brazilian Charles Chibana, 9^th in the world.

The final was a close match up until the very end. The two judokas had scored a yuko each, but Chibana got in an ippon with under 50 seconds on the clock. “Just looking at our rank positions, you could see he had an advantage. But I think I put up a good fight, because I didn’t make many mistakes.” 

Bouchard didn’t waste any time on the tatami in the Under 66kg quarter- and semi-finals. It took him no more than 2 minutes and 10 seconds to take Argentinian Fernando Gonzales (105^th in the world) down with an ippon. The semi-final, against Cuban Carlos Tondique, 74^th, was over in 1 minute and 17 seconds.

“I was expecting a tough fight against the Cuban, but he made a big mistake and I managed to take quick advantage of it and surprise him,” mentioned the judoka from Saguenay, who was elated with the atmosphere at the Mississauga Sports Centre. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a crowd like that cheering for me in a competition before. It was so special and so impressive.”

Arthur Margelidon, 28^th in the world, got quite a surprise in his first match, against Puerto Rican Augusto Miranda, 81^st, in the Under 73kg class. “I made a mistake that cost me the victory,” said the Montrealer. “I felt like giving up, but I got myself together, because I had to recalibrate for the next match.”

He bounced back in repechage and eliminated Dominican Lwilli Santana, 85^th.

In his fight for the bronze, Margelidon came out on top against Brazil’s Alex William Pombo da Silva, 14^th in the world. Da Silva took the lead with a waza-ari, but Margelidon soon caught up with a waza-ari of his own, which he then converted into an ippon. “It started out badly, he threw me, but then I managed to turn up the pace and win,” rejoiced the Canadian.

Athletes Rank Fifth in Paks

At the Junior European Cup, Emilie Burt (Under 63kg), Monika Burgess (Under 70kg), Mina Coulombe (Under 78kg) and Patrick Cantin (Under 73kg) all placed fifth in their weight classes in Paks, Hungary.

It was a busy time for Patrick Cantin, in the Under 73kg class – after beating Germany’s Fabian Mattis and Austria’s Christoph Hofer, he yielded to Russia’s Uruskhan Bek Balaev.

In repechage, he disposed of Serbian Filip Zivojinovic, Slovenian Martin Hojak and Italian Leonardo Casaglia on his way to the fight for the bronze medal. Up against Russian Musa Kodzoev, he saw the medal slip away as he took one more penalty than his opponent.

On the women’s side, after winning her first two matches in the Under 63kg, Emily Burt succumbed to British Lubjana Piovesana in the semi-final. Contending for the bronze, the Oshawa athlete was defeated by Austria’s Susanne Lechner.

In the same category, Jaquina Simao came in ninth. 

Monika Burgess logged two wins and two losses in the Under 70kg class and was eventually deprived of the bronze medal by an ippon victory from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Aleksandra Samardzic.

Although Mina Coulombe lost her first bout in the Under 78kg class, she made it to repechage and eventually to the fight for the bronze, but then was stopped short by Dutch Ilona Lucassen.

Zacharie Cheng Boivin (Under 55kg), Darren Elcock (Under 60kg), Jasmin Boisvert (Under 66kg), Anthony Pépin (Under 66kg), Gueorgui Poklitar (Under 66kg) and Bradley Langlois (Under 73kg) did not qualify for rank positions.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada