Montreal, July 25, 2015 – The long trip to Taiwan has proven to be most fruitful for Canadian judokas Stéfanie Tremblay, Sergio Pessoa and David Ancor: Tremblay got her hands on a gold medal, while her teammates came away with a silver medal each at the Asian Open in Taipei.

Exempted from the opening Under 63 kg round, Tremblay, ranked 58^th in the world, won three matches – the first two by ippon, against Vietnam’s Huong Nguyen Thi and Slovenia’s Nina Milosevic, 46^th in the world. The final match pitted her against South Korean Jiyun Bak, 37^th, and the Saguenay native came out on top thanks to a yuko.

In his second competition since his return, Sergio Pessoa won his first three matches by ippon. Ranked 96^th in the world in the Under 60 kg division even after an almost two-year absence, the Brossard athlete efficiently disposed of South Korean Sangeok Ju, Taiwanese Jui Hua Chiu and South Korean Jaehyeon Kim. He was however stopped in his tracks in the final match by Slovenia’s Matjaz Trbovc, 54^th in the world, with a yuko scored in overtime.

David Ancor also won his first three bouts, in the Under 73 kg division. Exempted from the first round, the Montrealer, 81^st in the world, defeated Thailand’s Masayuki Terada and Italy’s Marco Maddaloni by yuko, after he took three penalties during each match. He then beat South Korean Young Sun Lee, 82^nd, also with a yuko in overtime, before suffering an ippon in the final match against British Daniel Williams, 69^th.

“Very good day today,” said national coach Sasha Mehmedovic. “We had a goal to get every judoka in to the final and we did. Unfortunately we only got one gold but Sergio and David were very close. I’m satisfied with the team’s performance. Every athlete fought hard.”

Meanwhile in Prague, Czech Republic, Patrick Cantin represented Canada in the Under 73 kg class at the Junior European Cup.

The Deux-Montagnes judoka didn’t rank, after losing his first bout against Belarusian Hryhory Klebcha.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada