Montréal, November 11, 2023 – Quebec’s Louis Krieber-Gagnon posted two wins and two losses on Saturday at the Perth Open in Australia, yet still came tantalizingly close to a podium finish.

After receiving a first-round bye in the under-90 kg weight division, the Montréaler easily disposed of Eljan Hajiyev of Azerbaijan. However, he lost his next bout to Sungho Lee of South Korea in the quarter-final.

Nevertheless, the 27-year-old Montréaler kept his fighting spirit alive in the repechage, besting David Klammert of the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, in the bronze medal final against Britain’s Jamal Petgrave, he was unable to prevail. His opponent landed a waza-ari, which was enough for the win. Krieber-Gagnon therefore finished the day in fifth place.

On Friday, Julien Frascadore, who recently won a silver medal at the Pan-American Games in Santiago in late October, hoped to claim a spot on the podium once again. In the under-66 kg weight category, he began his day in convincing fashion with a quick first-round victory over Dominic Agudoo of Ghana. He then followed up with another win against Juan Hernandez of Colombia.

In the quarter-final, however, things got a little tougher for the 23-year-old athlete. As he explained, he mismanaged the end of his bout against Luukas Saha of Finland, who later won the silver medal.

“With 30 seconds left in the bout, I had a waza-ari, but I didn’t manage the end of the fight well, and I lost due to penalties in overtime. I was disappointed because I had dominated the match, and I should have won,” he stated.

The defeat sent Frascadore to the repechage, where he lost to Italy’s Mattia Miceli in the final moments of the bout and finished the day in seventh place.

“It was a very tactical fight, and he dropped me for a waza-ari with only a little time left. It’s another fight that I came really close to winning. Overall, my performance today [Friday] wasn’t my best, and I didn’t get the results I had hoped for, but still, I gained some valuable experience in my four fights.”

In the under-52 kg category, Alberta’s Kelly Deguchi lost her first and only match to Hsu-Wan-Chu Lin of Taipei.

Marc Deschênes, who had a first-round bye in the over-100 kg weight class, also lost his first bout of the day to Vito Dragic of Slovenia.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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