Montreal, May 28, 2016 (Sportcom) – Saturday was a short day for the Canadian judokas competing at the Guadalajara World Masters, in Mexico. All three of them were eliminated after only one match.

Quebec athlete Antoine Valois-Fortier, competing in the Under 81 kg class, was shown the door by Russian Sirazhudin Magomedov, 20^th in the world. The world’s third-ranked judoka was surprised with an ippon two minutes into the match.

“I was leading the fight,” said the Quebec athlete. “I quickly took the lead, but after two minutes, he managed to use a standing technique to throw me for an ippon.”

It wasn’t the first time Valois-Fortier was up against Magomedov. “We’ve crossed paths a few times,” he said. “I’ve beaten him before, but he’s also beaten me several times.”

Ontario’s Kelita Zupancic (Under 70 kg), ninth in the world, yielded to Puerto Rican Maria Perez, 24^th, who scored a waza-ari.

“It was a really tight match, too,” recounted teammate Antoine Valois-Fortier. “She got thrown at the beginning of the fight and wasn’t able to close the gap.”

Meanwhile, Arthur Margelidon, 13^th, was also served an ippon, at the hands of Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt, 18^th.

“He was having an excellent fight, but then he made a small tactical mistake,” said Valois-Fortier. “He grabbed his opponent’s leg and got disqualified.”

Virgina Nemeth Comes in Fifth in Coimbra

Canada also had representatives at the European Cadet Cup in Coimbra, Portugal, this Saturday. Albertan Virginia Nemeth was the best placed among them, finishing the Under 48 kg competition in fifth place.

She started out her day with a win and a loss in the preliminary rounds. In repechage, she beat French Auriane Audibert and British Molly Harvey, and then went on to lose to Laura Espadinha, from France.

Ontario judoka Aidos Sapenov also had a good day, with a seventh place in the Under 50 kg.

In the preliminary rounds, he defeated Portugal’s Bernardo Ribeiro and Italy’s Andrej Ferro, and then bowed to Spain’s Jose Fernandez Riopedre.

He then won his first repechage bout, against French Freddy Waizenegger, but ended up losing to Spanish David Hinojosa Larros.

Léa Roy (Under 44 kg) had one win and two losses on her log, and finished the day in ninth place. In the Under 52 kg, Taeya Koliaska also came in ninth, with a log of two wins and two losses.

Keagan Young (Under 55 kg), Shaim Paret (Under 55 kg), Philip Dion (Under 60 kg), Julien Frascadore (Under 60 kg) and Mathieu Bouchard (Under 66 kg) were also on the tatami, but didn’t rank in the competition.

“I am happy with the athletes in general,” said national coach Jean-Pierre Cantin. “This is a young team and many of them were having their first European experience. We finished the day with 14 wins and 14 losses.”

The World Masters tournament and the European Cadet Cup will come to an end this Sunday.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada