Montréal, April 16, 2022 – He has been coveting it for a long time, and now, he is finally wearing it. Shady El Nahas (-100 kg) won the gold medal at the Judo Pan-American Championships on Saturday in Lima, Peru. El Nahas performed flawlessly in his three fights of the day, wrapping up with a victory over Brazil’s Rafael Buzacarini in the gold medal final.

He really wanted the gold! Shady had a great day today. He dominated from start to finish. I don’t think he was ever in any danger. He remained in control the entire time,” said coach Antoine Valois-Fortier. “The final went well. He maintained good hand positioning during the fight and followed our original game plan. He didn’t make any mistakes and he waited for the right moment to score.”

The road to the big final was not an easy one for El Nahas. He faced Peru’s Daryl Yamamoto Servan in his first match before taking on Australia’s Kayhan Ozcicek-Takagi in the semi-final. Yamamoto Servan and Ozcicek-Takagi both ended the day with bronze medals.

“He beat them pretty easily, though. Shady is proving to be pretty much untouchable on the continent. He really had a leg up on everyone,” added the coach.

With a record of two wins and two losses, Ian Ryder finished the day fifth in the same weight division. He bowed out to Yamamoto Servan in the bronze medal final after having lost to Buzacarini in the semis.

Earlier in the day, Ryder had defeated Alejandro Escobar of Colombia and LA Smith III of the USA.

Two more bronze medals

In the under-81 kg weight category, Étienne Briand and François Gauthier-Drapeau both clinched bronze medals.

After losing his pool final, Briand beat Tomas Morales of Argentina and Samuel Ayala of Mexico back-to-back in the repechage to claim the bronze medal. Briand recently won two silver medals at the European Open.

“Étienne is extremely consistent. He was very explosive and he made strong throws. His loss was a bit of bad luck, but he should be proud of himself,” noted Valois-Fortier.

Gauthier-Drapeau fared in much the same way as his compatriot, losing his pool final to Ayala. He then defeated Nicolas Yonezuka of the USA and Medickson Del Orbe Cortorreal of the Dominican Republic.

“François showed real depth of character after his loss. He recovered well and kept his focus, without looking back. He ended his day well.”

Brazil’s Guilherme Schmidt won the gold medal for the weight division.

Keagan Young (-90 kg) came close to winning a bronze medal today; however, he was defeated by Robert Florentino of the Dominican Republic in the fight for third place. Young, of Ontario, had earlier edged out Ivo Dargoltz of Argentina to advance to the bronze medal final.

In the same weight class, Louis Krieber-Gagnon lost his first match of the day to Dargoltz.

In the over-100 kg category, Marc Deschênes also finished fifth after losing to Chile’s Francisco Solis in the bronze medal match.

Deschênes had started the day off on the right foot, beating Sergio Del Sol of Mexico before bowing out to Cuba’s Andy Granda in the next round. Granda later won the gold medal.

“These were Keagan’s first Pan-American Championships. We saw a lot of promise, but he still needs to gain some experience. As for Marc Deschênes, he’s been dealing with a knee injury since we left Turkey. I think it was bothering him a bit, which affected his performance,” concluded Valois-Fortier.

On the women’s side, Alicia Fiandor (-70 kg) and Coralie Godbout (-78 kg) both lost their first bouts of the day. Godbout had a chance to bounce back in the repechage, but she was defeated by Cuba’s Gorguet Maidelines.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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Patrick Esparbès

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