Montréal, October 17, 2014 – Quebecoise judokas Stéfanie Tremblay and Ecaterina Guica both came away with 5th place classifications in their respective categories this week, at the Tashkent Grand Prix presented in Uzbekistan.

After taking down the Austrian Tina Zeltner in the repechage, Tremblay succumbed to defeat in the bronze medal match, falling to the Serbian Jovana Rogic in the under 57 kg class. In the prelims, the Quebecer had a split record of 1-1, defeating the Brit Stephanie Inglis before dropping her second contest to the Romanian Corina Caprioriu.

“It was a pretty decent outing for me today, but I’m disappointed to have lost in the bronze medal finale. A podium finish was within my grasp. I took a very debatable penalty in the first minute of play, and that changed the match completely,” Tremblay pointed out.

“I put a lot of pressure on my opponent, but she never took a penalty. Once I fell behind, I made an error and I was thrown for a yuko. Despite the loss today (Thursday), I know that I’m inching closer to a medal. I’m going to stay upbeat and keep battling,” she added.

In the under 52 kg class, Ecaterina Guica also dropped her bronze medal bout, falling to the Portuguese Joana Ramos. She reached the 3^rd place match by winning her repechage fight against the Israeli Roni Schwartz. Earlier in the day, Guica came away with two victories over the Russian Antonina Tovstetskaya and the Spaniard Laura Gomez, as well as a loss to the Belgian Ilse Heylen.

“After a tough tournament in Kazakhstan, Ecaterina had a good day today. She won three bouts, including two against Spanish and Israeli judokas who were top-flight opponents. She was satisfied with her overall performance, and was glad to have had the experience of battling for a medal. She put in a good fight against the Portuguese in the bronze medal finale, attempting two solid attacks at the beginning of the match,” explained Tremblay in reference to her teammate.

On Friday, the Quebecer Alexis Morin-Martel lost in his opening bout by an ippon, falling at the hands of the Uzbek Giyosjon Boboyev in the under 73 kg division.

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