Montreal, June 27, 2015 – Six Canadians climbed the podium, three of whom the all the way to the highest step, at the Judo Pan American Open of San Salvador, in El Salvador.

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (Under 57 kg), Ecaterina Guica (Under 52 kg) and Stéfanie Tremblay (Under 63 kg) won the gold, while Jessica Klimkait (Under 57 kg) and David Ancor (Under 73 kg) lost their final matches and finished second, and Antoine Bouchard (Under 66 kg) won his match for the bronze.

After receiving a pass to exempt her from the opening round, Saint-Hubert’s Beauchemin-Pinard treated herself to three ippons during the day, against Mexico’s Margarita Padilla, Venezuela’s Anriquelis Barrios, and fellow Canadian Klimkait.

“I achieved the goals I had set for myself,” summarized Beauchemin-Pinard. “I wanted to improve my ground work, and I won two bouts on the ground. I wanted to score more, and I dropped my first and second opponents. I worked on my patience to control my opponents and to time my throws just right.”

Klimkait, before surrendering in the final match, won by ippon against Joselin Plaza, from Ecuador, and Gabriela Narvaez, from Argentina. The semi-final pitted Klimkait against Colombia’s Yadinis Amaris, and the Whitby, Ontario native won by waza-ari.

Guica, who was also exempted from the opening round, beat Salvadoran Fatima Gomez by ippon, and then Dominican Maria Garcia by waza-ari. In the final match, it was American Angelica Delgado’s turn to win by ippon.

To get her hands on her gold medal, Tremblay had to fight four times. The hardest of those four matches was against Ecuador’s Karla Campos, and it ended in a victory by yuko for the Saguenay athlete. After that, it was one ippon after the other: against American Hannah Martin, Brazilian Ketleyn Quadros and Ecuadorian Estefania Garcia.

“My semi-final (against Quadros) was pretty tough,” said Tremblay. “She was one of the best in the Under 57 kg, the class I belonged to before, and I won the bout by immobilizing her on the ground. In the final (against Garcia), I was losing because I had gotten penalized twice, and when I risked everything to try to throw her, she counterattacked. I won on the ground, in the last few seconds.”

Ancor vice-champion, happy ending for Bouchard

As for the men, David Ancor sidestepped the opening round, and then scored a series of ippons, against Salvadoran Alberto Arevalo, Peruvian Alonso Wong and Brazilian Thelmo Gomes. In the final match against British Daniel Williams, however, the Montreal judoka lost by yuko.

Antoine Bouchard was also exempted from the opening round, and then went on to score ippons to eliminate Brazil’s Emanoel Oliveria and Venezuela’s Sergio Mattey from the competition. In the semi-final, he was up against Nathon Burns, and at the end of quite a close match, the British judoka won by penalties. Bouchard went on to win his next bout by ippon, against American Maximillian Schneider.

In the Under 73 kg class, Étienne Briand, from Sept-Îles, also made it to a fight for the bronze, but he bowed out to Brazil’s Thelmo Gomes, who won by penalties.

After he was spared from the opening round, Briand beat Costa Rica’s Miguel Murillo by ippon, lost to Porto Rico’s Augusto Miranda by penalties, and defeat Mexico’s David Tavera by ippon at repechage.

Saturday also saw Erin Morgan (Under 48 kg), from Calgary, Béatrice Valois-Fortier (Under 63 kg), from Beauport, Patrice Gagné (Under 66 kg), from Baie-Comeau, and Arthur Margelidon (Under 73 kg), from Montreal, succumb in their first matches.

On Sunday, Monika Burgess (Under 70 kg), Alix Renaud-Roy (Under 70 kg), Catherine Roberge (Under 78 kg), Kelita Zupancic (Under 70 kg), Jonah Burt (Under 90 kg), Zachary Burt (Under 81 kg), Marc Deschênes (Under 100 kg), Louis Krieber-Gagnon (Under 81 kg) and Ignacio Rodriguez (Over 100 kg) will be stepping onto the tatami.

-30-

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada