Montréal, June 27, 2026 – Canada’s male judokas won gold, silver, and bronze medals on the final day of the Santiago Pan-American Open, which came to a close on Saturday in Chile. Ontario’s Keagan Young (-90 kg) captured gold, while Quebec’s Olivier Gagnon(-81 kg) and Guillaume Gaulin (-90 kg) picked up silver and bronze.

In a repeat of last week’s under-90 kg final at the Pan-American Open in Buenos Aires, Young once again prevailed over Oleksandr Nyzhnyk of the USA.

“Keagan really impressed me! He got off to a slow start in this tournament, but then he stepped things up all the way to the finals, where he was very impressive,” stated Canadian coach Janusz Pawlowski. “For the first minute and a half of the final, it was a pretty even fight, until Keagan knocked his opponent down to score an ippon. It was beautiful judo, and he really relied on his instincts.”

In recent years, Young has been sidelined due to injuries and surgeries. However, he has now recovered and is competing in the under-90 kg division, which is exactly where he should be, according to his coach.

Leading up to his final bout of the day, Young defeated his teammate Guillaume Gaulin in the semi-finals. Gaulin therefore moved on to one of the battles for bronze, where he disposed of local fan favourite Sandro Botto of Chile.

Quebec’s Alec Garand also fought for a bronze medal on Saturday. After being defeated by Nyzhnyk, who later won silver, he took on Yuta Galarreta of Peru, but lost the match and finished fifth.

Olivier Gagnon (-81 kg) was another Canadian contender for gold. In the big final for his weight category, he was pitted against Agustin Gil of Argentina, who had bested him in the semi-finals of the Buenos Aires Pan-American Open last weekend. Once again on Saturday, Gil got the better of Gagnon, who ended the day on the second step of the podium—one step higher than last week in Argentina.

“He made too many errors, and his opponent was able to anticipate what he was going to do and therefore score points. [Olivier] had a pretty good day overall, but he fell a little short in the finals,” noted Pawlowski.

In the same weight category as Gagnon, Porter Guy of Ontario was eliminated in his first and only bout of the day.

The Canadian coach spoke highly of his team, which will depart Chile with four medals: the three won on Saturday, plus the gold medal captured by Laurence Biron (-63 kg) on Friday.

“All of our athletes did well, even those who didn’t win medals. They gave their all, and they fought with heart. I’m proud of them all, and everyone on the team gets along very well.”

Canada taken by surprise at the Qingdao Grand Prix

On Saturday in China, Justin Lemire finished the day with a 1-1 record at the Qingdao Grand Prix. The Québécois began his day with a victory over Yehonatan Elbaz of Israel, before bowing out to Victor Skerlev of Bulgaria.

“The opponent that Justin beat today [Saturday] was the same guy he defeated last weekend at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix, which was quite a coincidence. Justin won the match today with a solid ippon, which was the high point of the day,” explained national team coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.

In the next round, against Skerlev, Lemire strayed from his game plan, and his opponent quickly nabbed the opportunity to catch him off-guard and score an ippon.

“Justin’s plan was to keep his distance, but a tactical error brought him in close to his opponent, and the young Bulgarian took advantage of that,” added the coach.

François Gauthier-Drapeau (-81 kg) saw his day come to a quick end when he was defeated in his first match by Aurélien Bonferroni of Switzerland, who scored a waza-ari.

“[François] dominated most of that match, but unfortunately, he made a slight error, and he lost in the final twenty seconds. It’s too bad, because he really appeared to be controlling the bout. To be quite frank, it’s been a disappointing day. I would have liked to see the guys take on some high-calibre opponents. They had the potential to go further than they did.”

The Qingdao Grand Prix will come to a close on Sunday.