Tony Walby Eliminated by Toronto Games Champion

Montreal, September 10, 2016 – Ontario judoka Tony Walby was expecting to last longer into the Rio Paralympic Games. Unfortunately, he was ousted after his very first Under 90 kg match, saturday.

Seventh place at the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the Over 100 kg, Walby bowed out to Argentinian Jorge Lencina, who claimed the gold at the 2015 Toronto Parapan Am Games and the bronze in the British capital four years ago.

Lencina, who also placed fifth in the 2014 World Champs, took a shido 22 seconds into the match. He bounced back, however, with two waza-aris, with a throw at 1:52 and on the ground at 2:13.

After losing his following bout, in the quarter-finals, the Argentinian found himself in repechage, and then had his day cut short in the second repechage round, finishing the competition in seventh place.

“He’s a very strong fighter and two-time Paralympic medallist, so we knew this was going to be tough going in,” explained Walby about his opponent.

“I tried to get a left grip and go left on him, but he controlled the grip the whole match. I tried to keep him at bay, but he did a really nice job with his attack and was able to hold me down for 15 seconds.”

“He’s a very, very experience fighter,” added the Ottawa resident, who medalled 12 times in the able-bodied Senior Canadian Championships before becoming a para-athlete because of his deteriorating eyesight. “I gave it everything I had. I have a tremendous amount of experience, and I tried to use it out there, but he got the better of me.”

"My wife, my two young children and my parents are in the stands, so it’s nice to fight in front of both my children,” said the 43-year-old. “At my last Paralympics, I just had my daughter here."

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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