Montréal, May 13, 2025 – Although the Canadian judokas competing at the World Para Judo Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, were unable to secure a victory on Tuesday, they will nevertheless retain valuable lessons to be applied in the future.
Such is the case for Montreal’s Eitel Houedakor, a first-time participant in the World Championships. Despite his first-round loss to Uzbekistan’s Shokhrukh Mamedov in the J1 under-81 kg category, the competition was a big step forward for him.
“It’s been a great experience for him. Understandably, he’s disappointed, and he feels that he could have done better, but what it indicates to us is that he needs more frequent training, so that he can catch up on the years of experience on the tatamis that he has not yet accumulated,” explained Team Canada coordinator and coach Franck Moussima.
Case in point: Mamedov’s experience played a big role in his victory by ippon.
“[Mamedov] took up some very unconventional defensive positions, which limited Eitel’s options and, unfortunately, in the second minute of the bout, Eitel was caught off guard by a change in direction,” explained the coach.
In the J2 under-60 kg division, Canadian veteran Justin Karn received a first-round bye, but lost his first match by ippon to Paris Paralympic bronze medallist Davyd Khorava of Ukraine.
“[Khorava] took up the guard first and positioned himself on the left. Justin hesitated to move to the right and ended up on the left, although he’s right-handed. He was hoping to reduce the Ukrainian’s range of movement, but that’s not his guard side. [Khorava] capitalized on that opportunity in the first sequence, while Justin was trying to move back to the right,” explained the coach.
Karn moved on to the repechage, where he faced Josip Tonzetic of Croatia. Both competitors performed well, but the Canadian ultimately lost when he received a third penalty.
“That fight was more within his reach, in that he made his presence felt. He took a lot of initiative, but lost because of penalties,” said Moussima. “[Tonzetic] used his height to attempt to create distance between them. Justin tried to close the gap, but each time he made a move, the referee gave him a penalty for false attack.”
The two Canadian athletes will return home in the coming days to begin preparations for a possible international competition in Egypt in July.
“Eitel will have to gain some weight, because he’s very light for his weight class. He’s about 5 kg lighter than the others. So with him, we’ll pick up where he left off. For Justin, we’ll have to rearrange his schedule so that he can fit in more training sessions around his work schedule, but we’ve got some good ideas to work with,” concluded Moussima.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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Patrick Esparbès
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