Montreal, February 23, 2020 – Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) was the Canadian with the best score on Sunday, with 2 victories and 1 loss on the last day of the Dusseldorf Grand Slam, in Germany.

Reyes was defeated in his third bout of the day by Elmar Gasimov, from Azerbaijan, in overtime. Later, during the gold-medal contest, Gasimov was defeated by Uzbek Mukhammadkarim Khurramov.

In the first round, Reyes only needed 90 seconds to eliminate Neo-Zealander Jason Koster by ippon. The real challenge for the Brampton (Ontario) native was in the next round, against Russian Niiaz Bilalov; Reyes won the match after almost 9 minutes.

“His highlight was his win against the Russian, who was a fierce opponent, after a long overtime. Kyle was stronger on the tactical side with a strong hold on him,” analyzed the coach and former athlete Sasha Mehmedovic.

In the same category, Shady El Nahas lost by ippon against Ivan Remarenco, from the United Arab Emirates, in his only bout.

In -90 kg, Zach Burt was defeated by ippon in the first round, in overtime, against American John Jayne. Mohab El Nahas also lost by ippon, against Netherlander Jesper Smink.

The Canadian team will be coming back from Germany with one medal, a gold medal won by Jessica Klimkait on Friday in the -57 kg category.

“As I said on Saturday, the length of this tour (three tournaments in four weeks during the European tour) could be a factor. We will use the next month and a half in Montreal to make sure our athletes are ready to perform at the Pan American Championships held in Montreal in April,” said the coach.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

Information: Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org