Montréal, October 7, 2025 – Four Canadian athletes were on Tuesday’s roster for the final day of individual competition at the Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru. And although none of them secured a win, coach Antoine Bouchard nevertheless views the day in a positive light.

Yehor Paladii (-100 kg) put up the toughest battle as he sought to dominate Bogdan Petre of Romania. Paladii opened the scoring with a waza-ari, but his opponent managed to even the score. When Paladii attempted to regain the upper hand, Petre succeeded in counter-attacking, putting an end to the match with a second waza-ari.

“Yehor got on the board first with a great waza-ari early in the match, but then he took a few risks and was countered twice. It’s unfortunate that it ended that way, because he was the one in control at the beginning of the bout,” said Bouchard.

Also in the men’s competition, John Jr Messé A Bessong (+100 kg) lost his first match of the day to Neutral Athlete Rustem Kadzaev, who won by ippon.

“[John] was up against a solid opponent. It wasn’t an easy opening bout for him. He tried to throw [Kadzaev] on his back, but he wasn’t in full control, and Kadzaev won via counter-attack.”

On the women’s side, Emily Harris bowed out to Brazil’s Dandara Camillo in the under-78 kg category, while Alisa Kofman met a similar fate against Rugile Stasiulyte of Lithuania in the over-78 kg division.

“Emily is the youngest athlete here with us this week. She’s still in the cadet age group, and she was up against an excellent adversary in her first bout. Nevertheless, it was still a positive experience for her. As for Alisa, she was caught off-guard on the ground, and she wasn’t able to recover after that,” explained Bouchard.

Canada’s best individual result at this week’s Junior World Championships was that of British Columbian Carla Van Zyl, who finished seventh in the under-57 kg category on Sunday.

Bouchard takes a positive view of the experience gained by his team this week in Peru. “Carla’s result was obviously the highlight of our week, but I also believe that despite the defeats they faced, several of the others also performed very well. They fought hard, and several of them will still be in the junior age group next year, so we’ll be able to build on what we learned here. For those who are moving up to the senior level, they had a great year despite not winning this week at the World Championships,” he concluded.

The Junior World Championships will conclude on Wednesday in Lima with the team competition, where the Canadians will face Neutral Athletes competing under the banner of the International Judo Federation.

-30-

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

For more information:

Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
[email protected]