Montréal, October 23^rd, 2013 – It was a difficult start to the Junior World Championships for the Canadian judokas in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the four representatives succumbing to defeat in their first bouts, Wednesday.

In the under 48 kg class, the Albertan Erin Morgan and the Nova Scotian Whitney Lohnes were in tough, drawing the two finalists from the last Junior European Championships, two Russian judokas.

Both Canadians would eventually lose by way of ippon to the strong Russian pairing. Morgan was beaten by Irina Dolgova while Lohnes fell to Anna Dimitrieva.

Dolgova, who was crowned the Junior European Champion last month, added a Junior World Championships gold medal to her trophy case.

In the under 55 kg division, Quebecer Anthony Pépin also lost in his first bout by ippon, falling to the Peruvian Dilmer Calle.

Nicolas Di Bartolo, also from Québec, fell in his first round contest by waza-ari to the Armenian Narek Karapetyan in the under 60 kg category.

“Tomorrow will be a better day! National coach Nicolas Gill joked. It was a really tough match-up for Erin and Whitney. In Anthony’s case he’s quite young; he’s still qualify as a cadet. He has plenty of time to figure things out. In Nicolas’ case it’s a shame because he could have won. He got scored on early and then couldn’t find a way to capitalize on his chances.”

Five Quebecers will be in action on Thursday in Ljubljana. Ecaterina Guica will compete in the under 52 kg class, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard at under 57 kg, Antoine Bouchard in the under 66 kg category, as well as Étienne Briand and Arthur Margelidon in the under 73 kg division.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada