Judo Canada – Oceania Open
Judo Canada – Oceania Open
Montreal, November 14, 2015 – West Vancouver judoka Ignacio Rodriguez climbed onto the third step of the Over 100 kg podium this Saturday, at the Oceania Open in Wollongong, Australia. This medal completes Canada’s four-medal haul in the competition.
“It’s very big for me,” said Rodriguez, ranked 91st in the world. “It’s by far the toughest competition I’ve faced, but by fighting my style – along with the encouragement of my team from the stands – I was able to overcome it.”
He started out his day with a victory over Australian Nicolas Berard, and then, 59 seconds into his second match, he suffered an ippon at the hands of Algerian Amine Mohammed Tayeb, who would eventually go on to win the gold.
A waza-ari in his third match, against New Zealand’s Sam Rosser, 34th, got him back on the winning track. His fourth bout pitted him against Australian Jake Andrewartha, 30th, and Rodriguez came out on top, with a waza-ari and a yuko.
“I had a good day today,” said the bronze medallist. “It was the longest day I’ve had in an international competition, but I felt good throughout. I went into every match with a plan, and executed it having fun the whole way through. There are always things to improve, and I’ll be looking at the film and figuring out what mistakes I made and how to fix them.”
The Over 100 kg gold medal went to Algerian Amine Mohammed Tayeb (39th), while the silver went to Azerbaijani Ushangi Kokauri. Estonian Juan Mettis walked away with the other bronze medal.
Swift Eliminations
Oshawa’s Zachary Burt (Under 81 kg) was eliminated by yuko in his only match of the day, against Montenegro’s Srdjan Mrvaljevic.
The same fate awaited Jonah Burt, also from Oshawa, who lost his only Under 90 kg fight to Azerbaijani Rustam Alimli, by ippon and waza-ari.
Marc Deschênes, from Laval, took his first match to overtime but ended up losing to Argentinian Hector Campos, in the Under 100 kg.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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