Montreal, October 1, 2017 – None of Canada’s female judokas ranked at the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia this weekend. Mina Coulombe (U78 kg), Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (U63 kg), and Alix Renaud-Roy (U70 kg) were all shown the door by their first opponents of the day.

Coulombe lost by ippon to Germany’s Maike Ziech, who ended the day in fifth place. “Sasha Mehmedovic had told me she was left-handed. We had established a distance game plan against her but I wasn’t able to stick to it entirely. Ziech’s attacks were head-on and she was always a little ahead of me. I just wasn’t able to catch up,” explained Coulombe, of Montreal.

“I honestly can’t see any bright side. The whole trip has been a bit disappointing, even though we felt well-prepared. Not having a coach with us was also a factor,” she added.

The category’s gold medal went to Shori Hamada of Japan, the silver to Sama Hawa Camara of France, and the two bronze to Luise Malzahn of Germany and Yahima Ramirez of Portugal.

On Saturday, Alix Renaud-Roy bowed out to Russia’s Valentina Maltseva, who went on to place seventh in the U70 kg rankings. “It was a tight match and I felt better than I had last weekend,” noted the judoka from La Pocatière, who placed seventh at last week’s European Open in Belgrade. “I was not very familiar with my Russian opponent. I lost to her in golden score. Unfortunately, my attack was a bit weak and she countered with a waza-ari.”

The gold medal winner was Brazil’s Barbara Timo, who beat France’s Fanny Estelle Posvite to claim the top spot, while Sweden’s Anna Bernholm and Austria’s Michaela Polleres placed third.

Also on Saturday, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, of Saint-Hubert, lost by waza-ari to Lea Reimann, of Germany, who went on to place fifth in the U63 kg group.

Japan claimed the two top spots: Nami Nabekura and Megumi Tsugane took gold and silver, respectively. Sweden’s Mia Hermansson and Britain’s Lucy Renshall nabbed the category’s two bronze medals.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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