A Day Short of Expectations
29 December 2020If you have questions
29 December 2020Montreal, March 13, 2016 – Catherine Roberge got her hands on one of the two Under 78 kg bronze medals this Sunday at the PanAmerican Judo Open in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In the fight for her bronze medal, the Ange-Gardien athlete, seeded 28th in the world, got Brazil’s Scardua Melina, 96th, to take four penalties before bringing the match to an end with an ippon.
After a bye from the opening round, Roberge beat Argentina’s Sabrina Sanchez de Bock by ippon, and then lost a very tight match in the semi-finals against Russia’s Anastasiya Dmitrieva, 21st, by penalties.
“I am a bit disappointed at losing the semi-finals by one penalty,” said the Quebecer. “Fighting in South American can be tough, because you’re often at the mercy of the referees. But I made a mistake; I should have just thrown her. I can be too reliant on classic judo sometimes.”
“I lost because of a silly penalty; let’s just say they’re quick to call penalties,” she said, agreeing she should have scored. “I told myself that I couldn’t count on winning on penalties this week, because I would not win. But apparently, I didn’t repeat that to myself enough.”
Roberge’s performance in Buenos Aires earned her 40 points in the international ranking. She is currently racing against the clock to climb up the ranking and make it to the next Olympic Games.
On May 30th, the world’s 14 best judokas in the Under 78 kg (maximum one per country) will secure their tickets to compete in the Rio Games, this coming August.
Roberge, who finished fifth at the Lima PanAmerican Open last Sunday, will go home a bit dissatisfied with her South American tour, as she aimed to make podium in Peru and get to the finals in Argentina. “I expected to at least bring back two medals from this trip,” concluded the 34-year-old, who competed in the Athens Games, in 2004.
Krieber-Gagnon and Coulombe Stand Out in Coimbra
Meanwhile in Coimbra, Portugal, Louis Krieber-Gagnon and Mina Coulombe climbed on to the European Junior Cup podium.
Competing in the Under 90 kg, Krieber-Gagnon won four out of six matches to win the silver medal. In the preliminary rounds, he had ippon victories over Portugal’s Diogo Brites, Spain’s Pedro Jimenez Patino, and Luxemburg’s Erwan Eggermont.
After disposing of Dutch Jelle Snippe by penalties in the semi-finals, the Montrealer suffered an ippon at the hands of Spain’s Nikoloz Sherazadishvili in the final match.
The competition was quite a rewarding experience for Krieber-Gagnon, who has recently moved up from the 81 kg class to the 90 kg division.
Coloumbe, fighting in the Under 78 kg, finished third with a 2-1 record. After beating British Rachel Tytler with two yuko, she lost by ippon to Portuguese Patricia Sampaio.
The Baie-Comeau athlete then won her final match of the day by yuko, against Spain’s Leticia Travieso Socorro.
Adriana Portuondo Isasi, from La Prairie, also won two of her bouts, in the Under 70 kg. However, she also logged two losses and ended up finishing the competition in seventh place.
“This has been another good day for our Canadians, with two medals, several wins, and lots of experience gained,” summarized Jean-Pierre Cantin, coach for the national junior team.
“(Louis, Mina and Adriana) put up great performances,” he added.
Braxton Clark (Under 90 kg), one win and two losses, and Olivier Gobeil-St-Amand (Under 81 kg), two wins and two losses, were the other Maple Leafers to rank this Sunday. They both came in ninth.
Lavanna Laass (Under 63 kg) won one of her two bouts, Emily Burt (Under 63 kg) lost twice, and Alicia Fiandor (Under 63 kg), Maxime Côté (Under 81 kg) and Kevin Gauthier (Over 100 kg) were eliminated after one match only.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada