Jessica Klimkait earned herself the gold medal in the Under 63kg class, Sunday at the Lima Grand Prix in Peru. Klimkait’s gold makes for quite a welcome back, after having been away for six months.

In the final, Klimkait got the better of Brazil’s Nauana Silva, which paved the Canadian’s way to the top step of the podium.

“At the beginning of the day, she was a bit nervous since it had been six months since she’d been in a competition, but honestly, she had a really great day, and she made no mistakes,” confirmed Team Canada Coach Antoine Bouchard.

Klimkait finished the tournament with a record of four wins and zero losses. She received a bye in the first round before defeating American Karleen Carrouth by ippon. A victory over Brazil’s Rafaela Silva – ranked 18^th in the world – allowed the future gold medalist to reach the semifinals.

The 28-year-old judoka scored a waza-ari and a yuko against France’s Rania Drid, a victory which secured the Canadian a place on the podium.

“She earned four wins without any mistakes in her matches, so I think she can say mission accomplished in terms of coming back strong!” noted Bouchard.

In the same category as Klimkait, Laurence Biron was not as successful as her teammate, and was halted after just one bout, losing to Chile’s Marcela Alfaro.

“We would have liked her (Biron) to win. It was a fight that was within her reach, but unfortunately, it didn’t turn out the way we wanted,” Bouchard shared.

The Peruvian capital was not as friendly to Yanis Hachemi and Justin Lemire either, both of whom were competing in the Under 73kg category. Each of the judokas were unable to earn any wins in their bouts. Hachemi lost by waza-ari to Britain’s Irakli Goginashvili, while Lemire was defeated by ippon by France’s Dayyan Boulemtafes.

“On paper, they (Hachemi and Lemire) had opponents who were less experienced, but the thing to keep in mind is that junior opponents come into the competition feeling like they have nothing to lose. So, they come in strong, and ready, and that’s probably what surprised our judokas today,” explained Bouchard.

David Popovici (-81kg) started his day with a win over Alain Aprahamian (Uruguay), but then suffered a loss against Brazil’s Gabriel Falcao in the following round.

In the same class, Arthur Margelidon was eliminated in the first round by Finland’s Eetu Ihanamaki.

Judo action isn’t quite over yet! Two Canadian judokas still have some time left on the tatamis at the Lima Grand Prix: Guillaume Gaulin will step on the mat in the Under 90kg category, while Coralie Godbout will be in action in the Under 78kg category.