Left to right : Alice Schlesinger, Juul Franssen, Sanne Vermeer et Stéfanie Tremblay (Credit Sabau Gabriela/IJF)

Montreal, November 18, 2017 – Canada came very close to seeing two of its judokas from the same weight class climb onto the podium on Saturday at the Grand Prix in The Hague, Netherlands. Stéfanie Tremblay finished her day with a win to grab the bronze medal while Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard lost her last combat of the day and placed fifth. Both were competing in the -63 kg group.

Tremblay won her final bout with an ippon against Iris Iwema of the Netherlands. “It was a good day for me. I didn’t have very many fights because I went straight into the quarter-finals. In the bronze medal final, my Dutch opponent was not particularly strong, but she was tall so I had to keep moving,” stated the Saguenay resident.

Earlier in the day, Tremblay had recorded one win and one loss. In the preliminaries, she lost by ippon to Juul Franssen, who went on to win the gold medal. In the repechage, she ousted Tserennadmid Tsend-Ayush of Mongolia with an ippon.

“I made a few mistakes during my first fight. My biggest win was against the Mongolian. I got a good hold on her on the ground during Golden Score,” added the Québécoise, who will now train for one week in the Netherlands and two weeks in Japan in preparation for the 2018 Elite National Championships, which will be held at Montreal’s TOHU in January.

In the other bronze medal match, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard was not able to defeat her opponent, Sanne Vermeer of the Netherlands, who scored a waza-ari for the win.

In the preliminary rounds, Beauchemin-Pinard sent Geke Van Den Berg of the Netherlands packing by ippon before bowing out to the eventual silver medallist, Alice Schlesinger of the U.K., who won by waza-ari. In the repechage, the resident of Saint-Hubert overpowered Russia’s Iana Poliakova by waza-ari.

Antoine Bouchard of Saguenay was the only Canadian man in today’s competition. He finished seventh in his new weight class of -73 kg.

His day came to an end during the repechage, where he succumbed to a double waza-ari from Mongolia’s Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir, who went on to take third place. In the preliminary rounds, Bouchard had defeated Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium by waza-ari and lost to Akil Gjakova of Kosovo by waza-ari.

Khadbaatar Narankhuu (gold) of Mongolia, Victor Scvortov (silver) of the United Arab Emirates, and Anthony Zingg (bronze) of Germany rounded out the podium.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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Stéfanie Tremblay/Credit Sabau Gabriela (IJF)

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard/Credit Sabau Gabriela (IJF)

Antoine Bouchard/Credit Sabau Gabriela (IJF)