Montréal, October 2, 2011 – Judokas Antoine Valois-Fortier and Alexandre Émond had their respective days end in similar fashion, Sunday, at the Liverpool Judo World Cup in Great Britain, both finishing in seventh place with two wins and two losses apiece.

 Valois-Fortier, 28^th in the world in the under 81 kg class, began his day well by sweeping aside the Cypriot Andreas Trikomitis, followed by the Spaniard Adrian Nacimento-Lorenzo, 143^rd in the world, defeating both by way of ippon.

He then went face to face with the 36^th ranked (internationally) Frenchman Loic Pietri, and the Italian Francesco Bruyere, 20^th worldwide, both of whom defeated the Quebecer by ippon.

“It wasn’t the first time I faced Pietri, but it was the best competition I’d ever given him, the Quebecois athlete concurred.  I’m a little disappointed by the result against Bruyere because the victory was within my grasp; I made just one wrong decision and I paid the price.”

The 21-year-old athlete is continuing his education in the world of judo. “The theme of the day was definitely experience, he explained. I need to gain experience against opponents at this level so I can eventually win those bouts.”

Émond also won his first two fights, but unlike Valois-Fortier, he did not score ippons.  Ranked 19^th in the under 90 kg category, he started off by beating the Frenchman Anthony Laignes (75^th) with a yuko, then followed that up with a three yuko performance against the 145^th ranked Romanian Valentin Radu.

In the third round of the preliminary tourney, he was caught off guard by the Latvian Aigars Milenbergs, 98^th in the world, who scored an ippon just 1:35 into the fight.  Émond didn’t fair much better In the L bracket, as the Brit Winston Gordon was able to score an ippon at the 2:31 mark of the fight.

Also in the under 90 kg class, Emin Sheykhislyamov, of Québec, was unable to make it past the first round, losing his first bout to the Frenchman Ludovic Gobert.