Montreal, February 9, 2020 – Antoine Valois-Fortier (-81 kg) will be coming back from the Paris Grand Slam with a bronze medal around his neck and a victory against the world champion. It was the second Canadian medal won in the French capital after Deguchi’s gold on Saturday in -57 kg.
“I’m happy! This year is an Olympic year and the level of competition was strong. It’s my first medal in Paris, I’m happy to have won it during such a prestigious event just a few months before the Olympics. I’m feeling confident and positive for the next months,” commented the Quebecois.
Earlier in the day, Valois-Fortier had defeated both his opponents by ippon. During his third contest, he went into overtime to win against Moldovan Nicon Zaborosciuc.
The fourth contest of the London Olympics bronze medallist ended in a defeat by waza-ari against 2018 vice-world champion Japanese Sotaro Fujiwara.
A medal was still possible for Valois-Fortier, who scored big in repechage by defeating the reigning world champion, Israeli Sagi Muki.
“He’s first on the world ranking, and I wanted to fight him before the Olympics. I’m happy to know he doesn’t like my style, so I know that if I face him again in a major event, I can repeat today’s performance against him.”
Valois-Fortier then ended with winning a bronze-medal contest against Portuguese Anri Egutidze, who had eliminated Étienne Briand earlier. An overtime of over one minute and a half was needed to determine the winner.
Ontarian Shady Elnahas (-100 kg) also fought in a bronze-medal contest, during which he was defeated by Russian Arman Adamian.
Elnahas won his first two matches before being defeated by ippon by Israeli Peter Paltchik. He bounced back in repechage against Austrian Laurin Boehler before losing against Adamian.
Étienne Briand (-81 kg) had a record of two victories and one loss.
In -90 kg, Mohab Elnahas had a record of 1-1, while Zach Burt lost his only contest.
The only Canadian woman in action on Sunday, Kelita Zupancic (-70 kg), lost her only bout of the day against Japanese Yoko Ono.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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