Judo Canada – Canadians are up against strong competitors in Baku

Montreal, September 23, 2018 – Stéfanie Tremblay was the best performing Canadian on Sunday during the World Championships in Bakou, in Azerbaidjan. She didn’t reach the finale, but it was her first time fighting 3 bouts during that competition, the biggest one of the season. 

“I’m pretty happy in general. It’s the furthest I’ve gone during Worlds. It’s a good result, even though I would have liked to reach the quarterfinal,” she said.

She first defeated Damielle Nomenjanahary, from Madagascar, and Stefania Adelina Dobre, from Romania, both by ippon.

“I did what I had to do. The first one was easy to bring to the floor. I threw the second one, and I got her on the floor,” she explained.

She then was eliminated by Japanese Miku Tashiro, who won the silver medal. “The Japanese is really strong. I knew it would be very hard to get through. I felt that I didn’t have any solution. I was stuck in her grip, and I couldn’t get out. I tried an attack, but she wasn’t really unbalanced, and she threw me,” explained the judoka from Quebec.

In the same category, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard was eliminated after her first fight. She lost by ippon against Netherlander Shanne Vermeer.

“I know her pretty well. I fought against her last month. Last time, I made a mistake at the beginning of the bout. I was ready, I had a good plan. The first 3 minutes were really great. I felt like I was dominating,” said Beauchemin-Pinard.

Things started going wrong after that. “I decided to try something that wasn’t part of the plan, and she got me on the floor. I wasn’t patient enough. If I had followed the plan, the fight wouldn’t have ended like that.”

She’s still satisfied with the first part of the bout. She had worked a lot on her technique against a smaller athlete, like Vermeer, and her efforts made a difference.

On the men’s side, Étienne Briand was the only one on the mats on Sunday. He was also eliminated after his first fight, against Irish Saeid Mollaei, who went on the win a medal in -81 kg.

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Information:
Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org