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Multiple Canadian athletes were in action in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) Sunday at the Junior European Cup. Three judokas made the tournament their own with podium finishes: Jumber Meladze (-81kg), Evelyn Beaton (-52kg) and John Jr Messé A Bessong (+100kg).
The 19-year-old Canadian was a force from the start to the final bout, where he mastered crowd favourite Lazar Zdrale.
“Jumber was really dominant today. I don’t think he was in danger at any point in the day. He was great in every way, and totally earned his medal; he really demonstrated that he’s an excellent judoka,” commented coach Sasha Mehmedovic.
Turning to John Jr Messé A Bessong, he returned to Sarajevo – where he was crowned Junior World Champion in the Over 90kg class last August. Sunday, he took on the Over 100kg class, and kicked off his day with a win over Croatian Karlo Sestak.
Messé A Bessong nonetheless saw his gold medal chances escape when he was surprised in the semi-final by Estonia’s Kabriel Kima. The Canuck didn’t waste any time getting back onto his feet with an easy victory in the bronze medal round against The Netherlands’ Bjorn Van Der Geest.
“John made a mistake in the semi-final against the Estonian judoka: he fell on his back when trying to use a countermove, and it cost him the match. He was able to get back into a positive headspace for the bronze round, and left his opponent no chance – that guy was actually penalized three time. John was able to finish his day off well,” mentioned Mehmedovic.
The third Canadian medal of the day was a silver that came from Evelyn Beaton in the Under 52kg category. The 18-year-old Albertan had a perfect scorecard until the final after wins over France’s Léa Beres, Australia’s Anneliese Fielder and Poland’s Karolina Siennicka.
In the final match versus Serbia’s Nikolina Nisavic, Beaton tried everything to score points on her opponent, but her efforts were fruitless; Nisavic was finally able to score two waza-ari and make off with the win.
“Evelyn’s day got off to a great start. However, she had more difficulty against the Serbian who countered all her attacks well. She was beaten tactically, but she’s really happy with her silver medal,” added Mehmedovic.
In the same category as Beaton, Sarra Bourihane had a record of one win and one loss while Violette Louet lost her only match of the day.
Marie-Lune Turmel (-48 kg) defeated Ana Cobanovic of Serbia before losing to Giorgia Hagianu of Romania in the second round. Heidi Quach and Ekaterina Danilkov – both in the Under 48 kg category – were defeated in their first bout. Then, Hailey Ko (-57 kg) lost both her duels on Sunday in Sarajevo.
On the men’s side of the tatami, Alec Garand (-90 kg) had a record of two wins and two losses while Michael Akbashev (-90 kg) was limited to one bout wherein he lost.
Panamerican Open judo action was also on the program this Sunday in Medellín, Colombia where Adrianna Portuondo-Isasi was the only Canadian in action. The 25-year-old lost her first duel of the day in the Under 78 kg class to Brazilian Ariana Ingrid Ramos Silva, who went on to win the gold medal.
Portuondo-Isasi had a chance to get back on track in the repechage, in a duel for a bronze medal against Cuban Nairelis Fuentes. Unfortunately for the Canadian, she committed three penalties in the first moments of the bout, so it was her opponent who stood on the third step of the podium, while Portuondo-Isasi finished fifth.
