Montréal, October 11, 2014 – The Quebecoise Stéfanie Tremblay came away with a 5th place finish in the under 57 kg class, Friday, at the Astana Grand Prix presented in Kazakhstan.

Awarded a bye through the first round, Tremblay defeated the 50th ranked judoka in the world, the Swiss Larissa Csatari, after immobilizing her opponent on the ground for an ippon.

The Montrealer, currently ranked 29^th in the International Judo Federation, would then go on to lose in the quarterfinals, falling to the Serbian Jovana Rogic (19^th) by a penalty.

In the repechage, Tremblay would come away victorious against the 36^th ranked Israeli Camila Minakawa, winning by an ippon. In the bronze medal match, the Quebecoise would eventually come up short, falling at the hands of the 44th ranked Brit Nekoda Smythe Davis by an ippon.

“Overall, I’m fairly happy with my performance. Still, it’s disappointing and frustrating to miss out on another podium finish,” noted Tremblay, who will have a shot at redemption next week at the Tashkent Grand Prix in Uzbekistan.

Elsewhere, the 48^th ranked Ecaterina Guica succumbed to defeat in her opening match in the under 52 kg division. The Russian Olga Gagarina (141st) got the better of the La Prairie native by an ippon.

On Saturday, Étienne Briand and Alexis Morin-Martel were both eliminated in their respective opening bouts.

In the under 73 kg category, the Montrealer Briand fell to the Kazakh Yertugan Torenov, who won by two shidos.

“I sincerely believe that the refereeing in this fight wasn’t fair,” the Quebecois judoka mentioned. “I felt like the match was at least going to go into overtime; we were on equal footing, in my opinion.”

“It was a highly competitive tourney, and I didn’t have any specific expectations coming in. I wanted to fight hard, and try to win every match. I can’t say that I’m satisfied though; especially not after losing a bout like that.”

Morin-Martel, also from Montréal, was unable to break through against the Uzbek Mirali Sharipo.

“I made a positional error that cost me the match,” he explained. “I was hoping for a lot better than this. It was a tough competition, but I expected more from myself.”

– 30 –

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada