Montréal, August 3, 2024 – On Saturday, the Canadian judo team had a final opportunity to climb onto the Olympic podium at the Paris Games in the mixed team event, where they took on the judokas of Uzbekistan in the round of sixteen.

However, the final day of competition did not unfold as the Canadian judokas had hoped, as they were denied victory at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.

“As in the other judo events, I feel we came within a hair’s breadth of winning several of the bouts. I feel that several of the close calls and critical sequences tipped the balance away from us,” said Team Canada coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.

Although their bouts were very close, both Christa Deguchi and Arthur Margelidon ultimately lost in overtime, Deguchi to Shukurjon Aminova by ippon, and Margelidon to Murodjon Yuldoshev by waza-ari.

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard was up next. She bowed out to Gulnoza Matniyazova, who scored an ippon.

Trailing 0-3, the Canadians no longer had any room for error. The defeat of François Gauthier-Drapeau to Davlat Bobonov by waza-ari thus decided the outcome of the first round, where the Canadians had to concede defeat to the team from Uzbekistan.

“This shouldn’t be seen as a 4-0 loss. All four bouts were very close, three of them in particular. I feel we came extremely close several times this week, so I’m allowing myself to feel a bit bitter right now,” added Valois-Fortier, himself a three-time Olympian.

As a result of Canada’s early elimination, neither Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi nor Shady ElNahas had the opportunity to compete in the team event.

“Right now, we’re feeling a bit disappointed and frustrated that we came so close so many times,” explained Valois-Fortier.

“Over the next few weeks, it will be important for us to do a thorough debriefing of what happened. It will be important to check in with the athletes themselves, since they’re the ones who are out there on the mats. I want to know if my impressions are correct, and make sure I’m not out in left field.”

Now that the Olympic judo competitions are over in Paris, the Canadian team will return home with one medal. Christa Deguchi won gold in the under-57 kg category earlier this week, becoming Canada’s first Olympic judo champion.

“Christa’s medal was a major milestone, both for me personally and for Canadian judo in general. She had an incredible day. But all in all, this week’s results are a little disappointing, because I think our team could have won more than one medal,” concluded the coach.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
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(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org