John Jr Messe A Bessong, Cadet World Champion
27 August 2022
Goodbye Francine!
30 August 2022
With the individual competitions wrapped up at the Cadet World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosniaand Herzegovina, the team event was on the program Sunday for the last day of activities.
Six categories were on the program for the day, the under 60 kg, the less than 81 kg and the more than 81 kg for boys as well as the under 48 kg, the less than 63 kg and the more than 63 kg for girls.
Unfortunately, the Canadians lost 4-2 to Azerbaijan. Lasha Tsatsalashvili (-81 kg) and Charlize Isabelle Medilo (-48 kg) were the two athletes to score points for Canada.
“All the fights were well fought, our athletes made honest efforts. It’s certain that we would have liked to finish the duel with the victory, it was 3-2 before the last fight and we unfortunately lost. We were not as good as them and they took advantage of it,” explained Canadian coach Alexandre Émond.
The Canadians had the opportunity to get back into the draft by facing Uzbekistan. However, it did not materialize as the Uzbeks were excellent, winning 4-1 against Canada. Medilo this time was the only one to score for her country.
“Charlize was super good throughout the day. She won both of her fights. Valiyeva Aydan, the woman from Azerbaijan whom she beat, finished third in the individual tournament. It’s a great performance from her,” the coach acknowledged.
“It was even more difficult against Uzbekistan, they beat us in just five fights, it definitely wasn’t our best exit. It’s a bit disappointing, we really aspired to win a medal. The mix of fatigue and lack of experience worked against us,” Émond added.
The tournament was won by France who defeated Azerbaijan in the grand final.
Despite the somewhat disappointing result, Alexandre Émond said he was happy with the performance of his athletes who were participating in a team competition for the first time in their young career.
“This is the first team experience of this style for everyone, including myself. I think we’ve all learned, and we’ll be even more ready next time. All of our athletes showed up to win, we had nothing to lose and the youngsters were not afraid of anything, I am proud of the effort of the whole team.”
