Montreal, June 3, 2018 – Canadian judokas in action on Sunday at the European Open in Madrid and the Junior European Cup in Leibnitz had another day marked by early eliminations.

Fighting in the -81 kg category, Alex Marineau was eliminated after two bouts. He started the day by winning by ippon against Irish Eoin Fleming before being eliminated by Spanish Jose Maria Mendiola Izquieta.

On the women’s side, Mina Coulombe was fighting in the -78 kg category. She lost her first fight by ippon against Polish Paula Kulagam.

Alix Renaud–Roy (-70 kg) suffered the same fate. The Quebecoise was eliminated by German Sarah Maekelburg on the first round.

At the Junior European Cup in Leibnitz, in Austria, Luka Khatelishvili was the best Canadian judoka of the day.

He won two bouts in the preliminary rounds by ippon in the -81 kg against Slovene Peter Uranjek and Brazilian Luanh Rodrigues.

His victories were followed by two defeats in a row, first against Italian Christian Parlati in the third round, then against Estonian Aslanbeg Magomedkerimov in repechage.

“Luka Khatelishvili ground out victories in his first two matches. Early promise was dealt a heavy blow with back-to-back defeats,” commented James Millar, the national team coach.

In the -90 kg category, Benjamin Kendrick won by ippon against Slovene Luka Dedic in his first bout, but was eliminated quickly after that by Slovak Denis Turac in the second round.

“Ben Kendrick looked in great form, winning his opening match by wazari then ippon in under one minute. He looked comfortable in his next match, scoring wazari at the halfway mark. Unfortunately some late pressure by his opponent forced an error, which led to an ippon loss with 30 seconds remaining,” explained Millar.

“Every athlete that competed this weekend was capable of winning matches at this level, with several who should have been challenging for medals. Unfortunately the individual performances and focus did not match the expectations,” concluded Millar.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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