Montréal, September 14, 2014 — Catherine Roberge came away with a 5th place finish in the under 78 kg class, Sunday, at the Zagreb Grand Prix presented in Croatia. It was a disappointing result for the Quebecoise judoka, who lost the bronze medal match in frustrating fashion.

After being exempted from the opening round, Roberge, the 8th ranked judoka in her division, won her first bout against the Italian Lucia Tangorre by taking less penalties (two versus three).

The Quebecoise then went on to beat the 15th ranked Frenchwoman Madeleine Malonga by a waza-ari. Her run would come to an end in the semifinals, however, where she fell to the Hungarian Abigel Joo by an ippon. Joo would go on to claim the silver medal.

“I had a decent day, I fought well and performed good judo. In my third match, the Hungarian took me down with an excellent maneuver. It was an opponent that I’d beaten in the past, so it’s a bit of a downer to lose to her. Obviously I would have wanted to do better,” Roberge said.

In one of the two bronze medal bouts, Roberge lost in overtime to the 17th ranked Ukrainian Victorila Turks, in a match that was bizarrely officiated.

“I was up against a lesser opponent and she really wasn’t trying to attack me at all. I wasn’t able to score anything because her judo was extremely defensive,” explained the Quebecoise, who, like her opponent, managed just a shido in regulation time.

“I had my hands on her throughout, controlling the pace and moving well… The fact that it went to extra time was surprising in of itself. But for it to end on a shido against me? That’s just ridiculous. If I was the referee today I’d be a bit embarrassed. I can’t explain how I lost. It was really frustrating,” she concluded.

Later in the day, several Canadians put in impressive performances at the Pan American Sports Festival, presented in Pachuca, Mexico.

British Columbian-native Brandon Jobb walked away with a bronze medal in the under 90 kg category after winning three of his four bouts. The Quebecer Marc Deschênes also climbed to the third step of the podium in the under 100 kg division.

On the women’s side, the Quebecers Monika Burgess (-70 kg) and Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi (-78 kg) claimed bronze medals in their respective weight classes. They both finished the day with records of two wins and one loss. As for Béatrice Valois-Fortier, she picked up one win in three matches to come away with a 5th place classification.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada