Montreal, November 4, 2019 – He had already lost twice against him in the past. This time was almost right. On Sunday, Zachary Burt (-90 kg) fought for over 8 minutes against Slovak Peter Zilka, but was defeated by waza-ari in the second round of the Judo Oceania Open in Perth, in Australia.

“I won my first match quite easily against an unknown from New Zealand. The second round was a real war,” commented Burt, adding that the tournament allowed to collect Grand Prix points. “The tournament attracted a good amount of the world’s best athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics.”

Facing Zilka, the Montrealer was confident he could finally win.

“The fight was over 8 minutes long, so it ended up being like two full fights in a row. My conditioning was good, so I was able to keep pushing and I really did everything I could to win this match. I was so close to scoring many times, but he was always able to spin out of my attacks at the last second.”

When the referee gave the last point to Zilka, Burt was upset.

“I think the referee was just looking to end the match. It’s really frustrating for me, because it begs the question as to why he (Zilka) wasn’t given a third penalty, which would have won the match for me. I really thought I was ahead in both attacks and quality of attacks, but it’s in these kinds of tough close fights that you need a bit of luck to tip the scales and I just didn’t have it today (Sunday),” added Burt, who will be flying to Japan to train until the Osaka Grand Slam.

Also competing in Perth, Ecaterina Guica (-52 kg) got a bye through the first round. She was then defeated by ippon by Turk Irem Korkmaz. She eliminated Guica three minutes into the fight.

Korkmaz then continued on until the semifinal in repechage and ended in fifth place.

Jacob Valois (-66 kg) didn’t compete because of a foot injury.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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