Montréal, September 12^th, 2013 (Sportcom) – Judoka Sasha Mehmedovic has decided to put an end to his career as a professional athlete. Competing in the under 66 kg category for the better part of his career, Sasha won’t be moving very far away from the tatamis, as it’s been officially announced that he’ll take over as the new head coach of the Canadian juniors and cadets.

A medalist on a number of occasions at Pan-American Championships and a bronze medalist at the Qingdao Grand Prix in 2009, Sasha Mehmedovic is excited to get to work helping teach the next generation of Canadian judokas. “Going from an athlete to a coach is the perfect transition for me, and I’m really excited to get started,” the newly retired declared.

His final official international bout came against the 10^th ranked judoka in the world, Nijat Shikhalizada of Azerbaijan, in the third round of the recent World Championships that took place in Rio last month. Sasha lost, finishing his tourney with a record of one win and one loss.

“Obviously I would have wanted to go out with a better result, but there’s nothing I can do about that now,” explained Mehmedovic, who participated in two Olympics, the London and Peking Games, the latter of which he finished in 9^th. “I have a whole new life ahead of me, and at this point I think I can say, ok, I did the best I could,” he concluded, satisfied.

“I have no regrets, even though I would have loved to have won a medal at either the Olympics or World Championships. I had a nice career and everyone at Judo Canada supported me throughout the years. And you know what? My favorite memories will have been meeting and competing with all my friends and teammates. Some of those teammates are my best friends today, and I’m sure a lot of them will miss me!”

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada