Wealth of Experience for Young Canadian Athletes
29 May 2023
Another Klimkait–Deguchi Final!
23 June 2023
Louis Krieber-Gagnon, the only Canadian competing at the Astana Grand Slam in Kazakhstan, lost his only bout of the day in the under-90 kg weight class. However, the setback did not discourage the judoka, who intends to draw valuable lessons from his experience and come back even stronger.
Talibov scored a waza-ari early in the match and held onto his lead until time ran out and he advanced to the next round. Talibov won that bout as well, before bowing out to Axel Clerget of France, who later won bronze.
“I was caught off-guard by one of his attacks, and I wasn’t able to retaliate before the fight ended. In one sequence, I thought I had scored a point, but the referees didn’t award it to me,” explained Krieber-Gagnon, who returned to competition this past winter after having injured his shoulder last summer.
“I knew he was right-handed, and I had taken some time to watch his fights before the tournament, in order to refresh my memory on his style of judo and the techniques he uses,” he added. “The lesson I learned from this is that I need to work harder on blocking my opponents’ attacks, so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
Tristani Mosakhlishvili won the weight division’s gold medal by defeating Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou of France in the final.
Krieber-Gagnon will be back on the tatamis next week at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam, in the Mongolian capital, where he will be accompanied by several of his compatriots.
Kelly Deguchi (-52 kg), Christa Deguchi (-57 kg), Jessica Klimkait (-57 kg), Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kg), Arthur Margelidon (-73 kg), François Gauthier-Drapeau (-81 kg) and Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) will all be in action in Mongolia.
