Montréal, October 15, 2025 – Canadian judokas won four bronze medals at the Panamerican Judo Open in Lima this Tuesday. Quebecers Coralie Godbout (-78 kg), Justin Lemire (-73 kg), Olivier Gagnon (-81 kg) and Guillaume Gaulin (-90 kg) will all take home bronze medals from the one-day tournament held in the Peruvian capital. However, despite the hardware haul, team Coach Antoine Bouchard believes the medal count could have been higher.

Photos – Confederación Panamericana de Judo

“It honestly wasn’t a great day for us. Yes, we finished with four bronze medals, but several judokas’ bouts were rather disappointing,” he conceded. “The athlete who fought the hardest was Coralie. She lost her first match against a relatively good Finnish opponent, and she was probably still feeling a lot of emotions from yesterday’s (Monday) competitions,” Bouchard continued, referring to Godbout’s third-place finish the day before at the Lima Grand Prix, held at the same venue. Notably though, yesterday’s tournament was much more competitive.

After her defeat, the 24-year-old judoka bounced back against Venezuela’s Zunilda Chavez, and then defeated Cuba’s Lisrialis Gonzalez Bonnet in her final bout of the day; Godbout won both matches by ippon.

“She had a rough start to the day, but then recovered and went on to win her other two bouts fairly easily, including her bronze medal match, where she dominated her opponent,” Bouchard noted.

In the Under 73kg category, Justin Lemire started his tournament with a victory, before losing in the semifinals, in overtime, to Alfredo Valdivieso (Ecuador), who then went on to win the silver medal. Lemire then defeated Australia’s Thomas Cramp, the latter of whom had beaten Yanis Hachemi in the repechage, to secure a medal. Félix Mercier-Ross finished fifth.

On his way to the bronze medal, Olivier Gagnon made short work of Argentina’s Luca Di Pascuale as well as teammate David Popovici, the latter of whom finished the day in seventh place. Gagnon’s defeat in the semifinals against John Perez Ruiz of Colombia, led Gagnon to a final bout where he defeated Tamon Hernandez (U.S.A.).

Alec Garant finished fifth in the Under 100kg category, after losing in the semifinals to American judoka and future gold medalist Daniel Liubimovski.

Defeated in his first bout on the tatami, Tylor Collin (-66 kg) did not earn a ranking.

Coach Bouchard explained that “These results fell short of our expectations, because given the draws, combined with our athletes’ experience, and the level of competition, we anticipated two or three finals for the nine judokas on the tatami today. That would have been a realistic expectation, but unfortunately, that’s not what ended up happening. Still, several athletes managed to bounce back in their finals to win bronze medals, and that’s what they need to take away from today,” he concluded.

Another Grand Prix – this time in Guadalajara, Mexico – awaits several of Team Canada’s judokas this Friday. Stay tuned for more judo action!

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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