Montreal, December 3, 2016 – Kelita Zupancic and Arthur Margelidon were the only Canadians to achieve rankings on the second day of competition in the Tokyo Grand Slam, held on Saturday in Japan. Zupancic placed fifth in her Under 70 kg category and Margelidon placed seventh in the under 73 kg group.

Starting her day with a bye in the qualifying round, Zupancic, of Whitby, went on to beat Nadia Merli of Brazil by ippon. She followed that up with a victory by yuko against Fanny Estelle Posvite of France.

Her first loss came in the semi-final when Arai Chizuru of Japan defeated her by ippon. Chizuru went on to claim the competition’s silver medal. In the battle for bronze, Zupancic yielded to Elvismar Rodriguez of Venezuela, who took the match by ippon.

“This was Zupancic’s first tournament after the Rio Olympic Games. Although she barely missed out on the podium, she ended up having a solid day. On the way to her bronze medal fight she managed to beat last year’s world bronze medalist, Posvite from France,” noted Michel Almeida, Team Canada head coach.

In the Under 63 kg, Catherine Beauchemin-Picard of St-Hubert claimed a quick victory over Nadja Bazynski of Germany, scoring an ippon after only 35 seconds. However, she was then shown the door by Kathrin Unterwurzacher of Austria, who ultimately took the championship. Beauchemin-Picard was competing in a higher weight class than usual, wich generally evolves in the under 57 kg.

In the same weight category, Stéfanie Tremblay of Saguenay was knocked out in the first round by Brazilian Yanka Pascoalino, who won by waza-ari.

Strong Comeback by Margelidon

For Montreal’s Arthur Margelidon (Under 73 kg), it’s mission accomplished. The judoka was returning to competition after having fractured the head of his radial bone this summer, dashing his dreams of competing in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.

Margelidon received a bye in the first round of competition. “He started with a strong performance by beating the Japanese Riki Nakaya, double World Champion and London Olympic Games silver medalist,” said Almeida. Margelidon scored a waza-ari against Nakaya.

In the quarter-final, he lost by penalty to Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium. His competition came to an end when Russia’s Musa Mogushkov outmanoeuvred him with a waza-ari. “Against Van Tichelt and Mogushkov, he fought very close matches but unfortunately ended up losing both,” added Almeida.

Oshawa’s Bradley Langlois lost his only match of the day when he received two penalties in his face-off against Mongolia’s Batgerel Battsetseg, who received none.

Étienne Briand (Under 81 kg) of Sept-Îles posted one win and one loss in the day’s events. He secured victory over Thailand’s Masyuki Terada by serving him an ippon but he lost by yuko in his match against Germany’s Dominic Ressel.

Montrealer Louis Krieber-Gagnon will make an appearance on the last day of competition, in Sunday’s Under 90 kg event.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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