Montreal, September 2, 2017 – Canadian Kyles Reyes’ appearance at the Judo World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, did not last as long as predicted. The judoka from Ontario ended his day with a record of one victory and one defeat.

In his first match of the day, Reyes, who competed in the U100 kg weight class, scored an ippon to beat Lewis Medina of the Dominican Republic.

“I wasn’t nervous for my first fight. It went well. It was the first time I fought him, so I didn’t know him well. It was a long fight but he didn’t surprise me too much. He really tried to avoid my attacks, so it was hard to throw him. In the end, I decided to make him take some penalties.”

His second bout took a different turn when he bowed out to Elkhan Mammadov of Azerbaijan.

“When we got to the three-minute mark, I could tell he was pretty strong, so I tried to score a point. By the time we were in golden score, I knew he was pretty tired, so I thought I had him, but he managed to get in a really strong waza-ari and win the fight.”

Reyes ultimately did not rank. “I’m disappointed because my goal was to win a medal. I felt ready. There’s a lot I can learn from today. It wasn’t so bad. I now know what I need to practice,” explained Reyes, adding that his next competition will take place in four months.

Japan’s Aaron Wolf claimed the world championship while Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani nabbed the silver medal. The bronze medals went to Russia’s Kirill Denisov and Azerbaijan’s Elmar Gasimov.

The World Championships will conclude on Sunday with the mixed team competitions.

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