Montreal, June 4, 2016 – Maple Leafers certainly fell short of their own expectations this Saturday at the European Open in Madrid, Spain. None of the Canadian athletes ranked in the competition, after they were all eliminated after their first match.

After receiving a bye from the Under 57 kg opening round, Whitby’s Jessica Klimkait lost her only match of the day by ippon to French Carla Grol.

In the Under 63 kg, Montrealer Jaquina Simao was no match for Spain’s Sarai Padilla Guerrero, who won the bout by waza-ari and yuko.

Bradley Langlois, from Oshawa, was the only men representing Canada on the first day of the competition. He was defeated by France’s Lucas Otmane by waza-ari in the Under 73 kg division.

“Today was a difficult day,” said national coach Sasha Mehmedovic. “This is a good experience for Jessica, Bradley and Jaquina. None of them have much experience in the senior level of judo. All three are still young and still learning. They have to learn from this difficult day and move on to the next competition.”

This Sunday, Étienne Briand will be starting out the day with a match against Argentinian Tomas Morales Martinatto in the Under 81 kg class. Alix Renaud-Roy will also be representing the country, and will start the Under 70 kg tournament with a bye from the opening round. Her first bout will pit her against the winner of the match between Spanish Maria Del Mar Paredes and Italian Carola Paissoni.

“Tomorrow we have our more experienced players,” continued Mehmedovic. “I expect a better day tomorrow from Alix and Étienne.”

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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