Montreal, August 11, 2018 – Ontarian Kelita Zupancic and Quebecois Arthur Margelidon made their way to the third step of the podium on the second day of the Budapest Grand Prix, in Hungary.

Fighting in the -70 kg category, Zupancic won a bronze medal after winning all her bouts in the preliminary rounds, scoring ippons against American Chantal Wright, Italian Alice Bellandi, and Moroccan Assmaa Niang.

Margelidon and Zupancic with their respective medal

Netherlander Sanne Van Dijke ended her winning streak, defeating her by waza-ari in the semi-final.

“I felt confident that I would have a good result today. As for my semi-final match, I’ll need to do some video review to see my mistakes,” commented Zupancic.

She bounced back in the bronze-medal fight against Swedish Anna Bernholm. She was able to score an ippon in Golden score, thus securing her bronze medal.

“In the bronze medal final, I was able to put my semi behind me to fight hard for a medal. I don’t like going home empty-handed!” added the athlete from Whitby, in Ontario.

Margelidon won 3 bouts in the preliminary rounds against Brazilian Lincoln Neves, Japanese Arata Tatsukawa, and Hungarian Frigyes Szabo.

“Winning against the Japanese, after he defeated me in the final in Tokyo, really got my day going,” said the 25-year-old judoka.

His only defeat of the day was in the semi-final, against local favourite Miklos Ungvari, in a very close fight that ended when the Hungarian scored a waza-ari in overtime.

“I was dominating during the bout. I should have made it all the way, but because of the arbitration, which I think was favourable toward my opponent, I couldn’t get in the final. In my opinion, I made two throws that weren’t scored, and there were more penalties that should have been given,” he explained.

“He was able to throw me by hooking my leg, and I tried to throw him in the opposite direction, but I fell first, so he scored the point. I know he did score against me, but I think the fight should have ended earlier.”

During the final for third place in the -73 kg category, Margelidon scored an ippon to win against Italian Giovanni Esposito.

“During the bronze-medal fight, I had to refocus, because I was really angry! I’m an emotional person, so when I think I should have won and I didn’t, I react strongly, and I have a hard time letting it go. This time, I was able to focus to win my bronze medal.”

“After a long absence because of some injuries, my goal was to perform, and see where I was at before Worlds. If I can win that gold medal there, I’ll be more than happy!” said the Montrealer.

Quebecoise Stéfanie Tremblay also made her way to the bronze-medal final, but she had to settle for the 5th place.

Fighting in -63 kg, Tremblay first won by ippon against Moroccan Sofia Belattar and Israeli Gili Sharir, before being defeated in her third fight, against Polish Agata Ozdoba-Blach.

She had to go in repechage, where she eliminated British Alice Schlesinger by ippon. Her bronze-medal final was against Slovene Andreja Leski, who won by ippon.

Antoine Bouchard (-73 kg) and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kg) were both eliminated in repechage and ended in 7th position. Bouchard scored 3 victories and 2 losses, while Beauchemin-Pinard scored 2 victories and 2 losses.

Emily Burt (-70 kg) and Étienne Briand (-81 kg) had 1 victory and 1 loss each, and didn’t get a ranking.

The only Canadian in action during the Junior European Cup in Cluj-Napoca, in Romania, Constantin Gabun lost his first and only fight in -73 kg. He didn’t get a classification.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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