Montréal, July 17, 2022 – Shady El Nahas would have preferred to advance further in the under-100 kg weight division at the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia. However, the Ontarian was limited to a total of two bouts today, posting one win and one loss.

El Nahas had a strong start to the competition, defeating Croatia’s Zlatko Kumric by ippon, but the 24-year-old Canadian’s workday came to an end in the next round, when he was upset by Hungary’s Veg Zsombor.

“Shady had a great opening fight against the Croatian. He then faced a young Hungarian who has been improving immensely as of late. Shady seemed to lack a bit of energy in the second half of that bout, and Zsombor got the upper hand,” explained coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.

This was El Nahas’s first competition since the Senior Pan-American Championships in April, where he won a gold medal.

“He was maybe a bit rusty. It’s been a while since he competed, and I think he needed to get back into the swing of things, so to speak. It’s better that it happened here than at the World Championships later this year,” added Valois-Fortier, insisting that El Nahas will be in impeccable shape for the Worlds.

In the same weight class as El Nahas, Kyle Reyes lost his first bout of the day to Grigori Minaskin of Estonia.

“Kyle was a bit disappointed. Minaskin has a unique style, and I think he caught Kyle off guard. He took control of the bout pretty quickly by scoring early, and he managed to finish the job, even though Kyle fought well,” concluded the Canadian coach.

Two bronze medals in Winterthur

Ian Ryder (-100 kg) and Coralie Godbout (-78 kg) both reached the third step of the podium at the Senior European Cup in Winterthur, Switzerland.

In his first two bouts of the day, Ryder promptly dispatched of Begzat Shagatayev of Kazakhstan and Jason Koster of New Zealand in back-to-back matches. Thanks to the two victories, the Canadian finished first in his pool.

In the semi-final, Ryder was defeated by Kylian Bulthuis of the Netherlands, who later won the silver medal. Ryder refused to be deterred, however. In his bronze medal fight against Andres Felipe Moreno of Italy, he battled his way to victory in a showdown lasting more than nine minutes.

As for Godbout, she met with adversity early in the day when she lost to New Zealand’s Moira De Villiers, who later won a bronze medal.

In the repechage, Godbout took full advantage of her second chance, ousting Austria’s Marlene Hunger by ippon. In the bronze medal final, the Québécoise scored two quick, successive waza-ari against France’s Lou Anne Brustel to clinch the third spot on the podium.

In the under-90 kg group, Alexandre Arencibia was defeated in his first bout of the day at Winterthur by Richard Fiedler of Germany.

Nikola Petrovic third in Paks

British Columbia’s Nikola Petrovic posted the best Canadian result at the Junior European Cup in Paks, Hungary, finishing with the bronze medal in the under-100 kg category.

He quickly won his first two bouts to claim first place in his draw, but he was defeated by Kenny Liveze of France in the semi-final. In his bronze medal fight, Petrovic did away with Georgia’s Erekle Bazierishvili in a mere 23 seconds.

Evelyn Beaton (-52 kg) also had a good day, finishing in fifth place. After beginning her day with three convincing wins, she lost to Rebeka Keller of Hungary, who later won gold, in the semi-final. She was subsequently defeated by Germany’s Nicole Stakhov in the bronze medal final.

Canadians Guillaume Gaulin (-81 kg, 0-1), David Popovici (-81 kg, 2-2), Xavier Godbout (-90 kg, 0-1), Alec Garand (-90 kg, 0-1), John Jr. Messé A Bessong (+100 kg, 0-2), Charlize Isabelle Medilo (-48 kg, 1-2), Ekaterina Danilkov (-48 kg, 1-2), Kondelia Karas (-57 kg, 0-1) and Mahee Savoie (-57 kg, 0-1) also competed in Paks.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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