Bronze for Klimkait in Austria

Montreal, February 18, 2017 – Ontario’s Jessica Klimkait added a new medal to her collection on Saturday when she placed third in the U57 kg class at the European Judo Open in Oberwart, Austria.

“It’s coming off to a pretty good start. I’m glad I came away with that medal. It was important for me to see that I can compete against tough opponents,” stated the Canadian.

Klimkait’s day began with a bye, which was followed by a bout against Sarah Leonie Cysique of France, whom she eliminated by waza-ari. In her next match, Klimkait, who hails from Whitby, received a penalty and bowed out to Momo Tamaoki of Japan, who later went on to snag the gold medal. The maple leaf-wearing athlete dominated her next opponent, scoring three waza-aris against Fabienne Kocher of Switzerland in the repechage.

In the bronze medal match, Klimkait showed Serbian Jovana Rogic the door, once again by waza-ari.

“I feel pretty satisfied with my day. The fight that I lost, I feel that if I had pushed a little harder towards the end, I would have been able to push through it and win. Compared to last weekend, I feel better mentally and physically. I have a lot of volume of attack, I attack often. I try to grab first and I think the intensity of my attack helps,” added Klimkait.

The silver medal was awarded to Kwon You-jeong of South Korea and the other bronze medal went to Marti Malloy of the USA.

Stéfanie Tremblay of Saguenay ended the day with a record of one win and one loss in the U63 kg group. She outperformed Krisztina Polyak of Hungary but succumbed to Yanka Pascoalino of Brazil, who won by waza-ari.

In the same category, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard’s day followed a similar course. The judoka from Saint-Hubert started out with a victory over Austrian Eleftheria Theodorakis, but didn’t make it past her next bout. In a match decided by penalties, she lost to Japan’s Aimi Nouchi, taking two penalties to Nouchi’s one.

The podium in the U63 kg class consisted of Kathrin Unterwurzacher of Austria (gold), Kiyomi Watanabe of the Philippines (silver), Isabel Puche of Spain (bronze), and Lindsay Tsang Sam Moi of France (bronze).

On Sunday, Kelita Zupancic will be hitting the tatamis in U70 kg action.

No Medals for the Men

The Canadian men’s team is competing in the European Open in Rome, Italy, this weekend. Saturday was a short day for Bradley Langlois, Canada’s only contestant in the men’s U73 kg group. After receiving a bye in his first round, the judoka from Oshawa fell to Brazil’s Jeferson Junior Santos, who won by waza-ari.

The U73 kg podium was made up of Japan’s Yuhei Yoshida (gold), Italy’s Leonardo Casaglia (silver) and two competitors from Brazil: Marcelo Contini and Lincoln Neves (both bronze).

The tournament continues on Sunday. Étienne Briand (U81 kg), Louis Krieber-Gagnon (U90 kg), and Zachary Burt (U90 kg) will be the ones to watch.

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