Montreal, August 8, 2016 – Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard’s Olympic experience was brought to an early end by a simple shido dealt out 51 seconds into her first match today, at Rio’s Arena Carioca 2.

The Saint-Hubert judoka had nevertheless started out strong, with a threatening arm lock executed onto Hungary’s Hedvig Karakas at the beginning of the bout, which had the potential of bringing Beauchemin-Pinard closer to the victory.

“I think that was one of my mistakes in the fight,” analyzed the Under 57 kg judoka. “I didn’t stick with the arm lock all the way. I was afraid the refs would call stoppage, so I decided to change positions to try and pin her down. Looking back now, I should have kept her in the arm lock, but of course, hindsight is 20-20.”

In the end, it was a non-combativity penalty that sealed the fate of the match. “The refs don’t necessarily look at the fight as a whole,” explained Beauchemin-Pinard. “The way I see it, I had not attacked for two sequences, so they technically could give me a penalty. But they also could not give me a penalty. It could have gone either way. I can’t honestly said I didn’t deserve it either.”

The 22-year-old, fifth place at the 2016 World Championships and 14^th in the International Judo Federation’s latest ranking, has higher expectations for her Olympic experience. She had clearly stated she expected to get her hands on a medal.

Her plans for the following few days? “I’m going to follow Antoine (Bouchard) closely,” she concluded, in tears. “His performance is encouraging and makes me hopeful for the team. I’m going to hold on to him and his positive vibes.”

At the end of the day, Brazilian Rafaela Silva treated the roaring crowd to a gold medal victory over number-one seed, Mongolian Sumiya Dorjsuren, who took home the silver. The two bronze medals went to Telma Monteiro, from Portugal, and Kaori Matsumoto, from Japan.

-30-

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
Information: 514-990-0966 | 1-866-990-0966