Briand wins gold against Valois-Fortier in Bulgaria

Montreal, February 4, 2018 – Canadian judo fans were in for a riveting final in the -81 kg category at the European Open in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday. Étienne Briand won against his teammate Antoine Valois-Fortier to bring home the gold medal. Louis Krieber-Gagnon (-90 kg) also performed well and won a bronze medal.

Briand, from Sept-Îles, won by ippon against Valois-Fortier, from Beauport.

“It was a classic fight with two athletes from the same country. We know each other well, so there weren’t many big attacks. Antoine started strong. I had 2 penalties and he had 1 went we went into golden score. I won, but it could have been any of us,” commented Briand, who’s hoping to win another medal at the Paris Grand Slam next week.

Olympian Valois-Fortier added, “I think a final against him was logical. We were both leading the ranking. It was a good day for me, but he had a very good attack during overtime. He was stronger in a back throw, and he was able to keep up a fast pace.”

Earlier in the day, Briand won the semi-final against Magomed Abdulkagirov from Russia, and against British Adam Hoshal, Czech Jindrich Turek, and Arso Milic from Montenegro in the preliminary rounds.

The silver medallist won by ippon after only 57 seconds against Polish Damian Szwarnowiecki in the semi-final. He won the preliminary rounds against Russian Abas Azizov, Lithuanian Arturas Maiboroda, and Montenegrin Nikola Gusic.

“I had a back injury in September, and I had to take a few months off, so this is my comeback. I hope to win more medals in Paris and in Germany in the next few weeks.”

Krieber-Gagnon comes back strong

Louis Krieber-Gagnon ended his day with a victory by waza-ari against Joachim Bottieau, from Belgium, that allowed him to finish third on the podium. Polish Piotr Kuczera won the semi-final by waza-ari. The athlete from Montreal won his 3 bouts in the preliminary rounds.

“My high point was to be able to come back strong after my loss in the semi-final and my quick ippon in the quarterfinal. My plan was to fight well, give it everything I had and leave nothing to chance. I didn’t perform very well during Nationals, so this result is an energy boost.”

Zachary Burt (-90 kg), Mohab El Nahas (-90 kg) and Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) didn’t get a ranking.

-81 kg		-90 kg
-70 kg
-66 kg			-100 kg		–81 kg		Jacob Valois (CAN)	2	Karl-Richard Frey (GER)	2	Armann Khalatian (FRA)
3	Romaric Boudar (FRA)		3		Shady El Nahas (CAN)	3		Hannes Conrad (GER)
3	Minoru Tamashiro (ARG)		3		Alexandre Iddir (FRA)	3		Tim Gramkow (GER)
5	Van Si Nzaou (FRA)		5	Mewen Ferey Mondesir (FRA)	5	Igor Soucat (FRA)
5	Thomas Jaffart (FRA)		5	Sjors Riddersma (NED)	5	Emil Hennebach (GER)
7	Alex Short (SCO)		7	Nicolas Homo (FRA)	7	François Gauthier-Drapeau (CAN)
7	Reda Seddouki (FRA)		7	Domenik Schoenefeldt (GER)	7	Dimitri Choque (FRA)