Quebec’s Tomo Di Cesare (-73 kg) obtained Canada’s top result at the Cadet World Championships in Lima, Peru, on Friday, finishing with a record of two wins and one loss.

“He was having a good day, and his third bout started off well. He dominated all the upright sequences, but once the fight moved to the floor, his opponent immobilized him, which Tomo was not expecting,” explained Canadian coach and Olympian Alexandre Émond, regarding Di Cesare’s match against Norbertas Racka of Lithuania.

Earlier, Di Cesare had bested Moises Ozuna of the Dominican Republic and fifth-seeded Heinrich Hanada of the USA, before being defeated by Racka.

“It’s the only cadet tournament in the world where you have to make it to the quarter-finals to be able to continue. It’s a bit like the Olympics. For these young people, it’s their first time experiencing this format. Many of them were one win away from advancing to the quarter-finals, but they didn’t win the key bout,” added Émond.

In the same pool, British Columbia’s Zachary Harris won one match before bowing out to France’s Noah Boué, who ended the day on the third step of the podium.

The other Canadian male in action today was Tristan Bourque of Québec, who lost his first and only fight of the day.

On the women’s side, Charlie Thibault (-63 kg) finished with one win and one loss.

“Charlie won her first match easily, but in the next round, the Italian had a style that was difficult for her to handle in such a tactical, sleeve-to-sleeve fight. She scored against Charlie with 30 seconds left to go,” said Émond.

In the under-57 kg weight division, Carla Van Zyl of British Columbia disposed of Luisa Villanueva of the Dominican Republic, only to subsequently be halted by Germany’s Jolina Reinhold.

“In the first round, if you lose to someone who goes on to become world champion, you don’t get redrawn. For a lot of these athletes, this higher level of competition is completely new. There’s a learning curve, and we hope they’ll keep up their good work,” added the coach.

That is precisely what happened to Quebec’s Myroslava Bondarenko, who lost her first bout of the day to Terbish Ariunzaya of Mongolia, the eventual gold medallist.

The final individual competitions of the Cadet World Championships will take place on Saturday.