Two Golds for Canadian Women, Silver for Sergio Pessoa !

Montreal, November 13, 2015 – It has been a great day for judokas Stéfanie Tremblay and Ecaterina Guica, who both climbed onto the highest step of the podium at the Oceania Open of Wollongong, Australia. Sergio Pessoa also contributed to Canada’s medal haul this Friday, with a silver medal in the Under 60 kg class.

Competing in the Under 63 kg, Stéfanie Tremblay could not have asked for better results. “Very, very good day!” said Guica. “I got exactly what I came here for, a gold medal and 100 points toward qualifying for the Olympics.”

On her way to the top of the podium, the 25-year-old defeated Australian Katharina Haecker in the final. “I was leading by one penalty and I threw her for a waza-ari,” said the Saguenay native. “Then, I wanted to stay on the ground, so I got on my back. The ref thought that she had gotten me on my back and gave her a waza-ari. Fortunately, I was still ahead by a penalty.”

Before that, she won the semi-final against American Leilani Akiyama. “I threw her twice for a yuko and then I managed to score an ippon by pinning her down and immobilizing her in the last 30 seconds of the fight,” explained Tremblay.

Earlier on, Tremblay, ranked 42^nd in the world, locked horns with Luxembourg’s Taylor King, in a match she won by taking one penalty against King’s three. “I got her to take the penalties, and then all I had to do was keep on the defence for the rest of the fight.”

Now that this tournament is over, Stéfanie Tremblay gets to have a break before her next competition, in January.

In the Under 52 kg, Ecaterina Guica, 30^th, won the final bout by ippon against Swiss Evelyne Tschopp – a victory that earned her the gold medal and the maximum number of points towards qualifying for the Olympic Games. To get to the final round, the Montrealer beat both Armenian Zhanna Stankevich and Australian Tinka Easton by ippon.

Sergio Pessoa (Under 60 kg) had his gold medal opportunity snatched away when Czech Pavel Petrikov served him an ippon in the final match.

In the semi-final, the silver medallist finished Azerbaijani Oruj Valizada off with an ippon, on top of the three penalties the Sao Paulo native had gotten Valizada to take.

Before that, the Québécois, 57^th in the world, had received a bye in the first round, and then beaten both Hong Kong’s Lau Ka Chun and Portugal’s Nuno Carvalho by ippon.

Patrick Gagné, competing in the Under 66 kg, finished the competition off the podium, after losing the fight for a bronze medal to Belgian Kenneth Van Gansbeke. The Baie-Comeau athlete, 33^rd, started out the day with a victory by ippon over Australian Tom Pappas, but was then caught by surprise by Turkish Sinan Sandal and found himself in repechage.  

He then found his way to the fight for the bronze with a quick victory over Australian Nathan Katz.

“This has been a pretty funny day,” said the 24-year-old. “My ground game is my strongest suit, and that’s how I won two matches today. Ironically, that’s also how I lost the other two. I felt like I could win this competition, but that’s not how things turned out. The good news is that, two months after a surgery, my knee held up well, so now I can train for the upcoming tournaments.”

In the Under 73 kg, Montreal’s David Ancor received an opening-round bye, but was then eliminated in his first match, against Azerbaijani Fagan Guluzada.

“My day came to an end sooner than I expected,” said Ancor, 71^st. “I thought I could win this one, but well, that’s judo for you! Sometimes, you have to bow out and move on, which is exactly what I plan to do. There are so many great things on the horizon for me. I am happy about what my teammates accomplished today.”

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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