Montréal, July 11, 2026 – Carla Van Zyl (-63 kg) and Missy Jen Dorval Mbele (-70 kg) both earned themselves bronze medals Saturday, at the Paks Junior European Cup taking place in Hungary.

Van Zyl won her first two bouts before being halted in the quarter final by Portugal’s Maria Silveira. The Canadian then advanced through the repechage round, and with determination, fought her way all the way back to the bronze medal round.

“It was a hard-fought match in the quarterfinals! After her loss she bounced right back quickly though, in order to secure more victories – that’s a great sign of maturity,” said Canadian coach Antoine Bouchard.

The British Columbian judoka won her final bout of the day against Dutch athlete Celine Kleijmeer, and thus claimed third place on the podium for herself.

“For Carla, this is sort of the logical next step athletically-speaking; she’s reached a pretty impressive level of consistency. She’s been winning medals for several tournaments now, and I think that shows she’s on a steady upward trajectory,” affirmed Coach Bouchard.

Dorval Mbele won her first two bouts on the tatami before losing to Russia’s Karina Islamova in the semifinals. Then, she faced off with Barbora Nemcova (Czech Republic), and Dorval Mbele won the important bronze-medal match and secured her spot on the podium.

“She scored very quickly in the bronze-medal bout, and kept her opponent on the ground throughout, so I’d say it was a great day for her, too,” explained the coach.

In a different bout but still in the Under 70 kg division, Charlie Thibault ended her day with a record of one win and two losses.

Frédérique Lavigne (+78 kg) lost both of her bouts on the tatami today, while Maia Thomson(-63 kg) was only able to participate in one match.

In men’s judo action, Xavier Brouillette (-60 kg) and Fahd Fithane (-73 kg) both won their first two matches, before having to admit defeat in the quarterfinal round of their respective weight classes.

Both Brouillette and Fithane were then eliminated in the first round of the repechage. Contextualizing the performance, Bouchard noted that “Both of them demonstrated some great things today, but the results also tell us that there’s still some work to be done.”

Anes Mati (-66 kg) finished the competition with a record of one win and one loss.

Loïc Beaton (-60 kg), Denis Neyolov (-66 kg), and Machiel Talbot (-73 kg), were all limited to just one match on the tatami today.