Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard during training Photo credit: Rafal Burza

Montreal, February 24, 2018 – Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, Antoine Valois-Fortier and Kelita Zupancic had a short day at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam, in Germany, after being eliminated quickly.

Beauchemin-Pinard and Valois-Fortier both had one victory and one loss on Saturday. Beauchemin-Pinard, fighting in the -63 kg category, won by waza-ari against Romanian Stefania Adelina Dobre, before losing her second fight, against Japanese Megumi Tsugane.

“I was doing well during the fight against the Romanian, but it was hard to make her fall, so we went into overtime and I was able to score a waza-ari,” commented the judoka from Saint-Hubert.

“I had the feeling I was dominating during the fight against the Japanese, but I tried attacking her while on my knees. She didn’t fall, so I decided to go on my back in a guard position to go ne-waza, but she did a sweep at the same time and the referees gave her a waza-ari. I’m not sure it was fair, but there was nothing I could do except try to score more points. I wasn’t able to score, because she started being more defensive.”

“It’s very frustrating, but I didn’t have a choice, I had to adapt,” she added.

In the -81 kg category, Valois-Fortier, from Beauport, won his first fight by ippon against Italian Antonio Esposito, but quickly lost by waza-ari in the second round against French Oumar Djalo Alpha.

“My opponent was ready and fought well in the beginning. I wasn’t able to come back later in the fight,” explains Valois-Fortier after his second fight.

Kelita Zupancic lost her first fight by ippon against German Marlene Galandi.

“I’ve been really sick here in Germany. I’ve had the flu all week and was not in good shape at all for competing today,” said the Ontarian judoka.

Zachary Burt is the last Canadian athlete to compete. He’ll fight on Sunday in the -90 kg category.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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