Montréal, November 7, 2025 – Canadian judokas Ronald Angus and Laurie Wiltshire will be sporting gold medals as they head home from the Veteran World Championships, held in Paris this week. Their compatriot Amanda McAlpine will bring home a bronze.
Angus put in a perfect performance in his three M8 under-100 kg bouts in the French capital.
The Ontarian began with a hard-fought victory over Felio Calafat Frau of Spain, which boosted his confidence for the following rounds.
“I always like starting off with a difficult fight, because it gets me in the mindset. [Calafat Frau] is the defending Veteran European Championships silver medallist. Beating him confirmed to me that I was in good shape,” said Angus.
Angus went on to defeat Argentina’s Daniel Jose Amin in the semi-finals and Croatia’s Rade Krnjeta in the big final. In the battle for gold, Angus scored early in the bout. Soon afterwards, Krnjeta became injured and was forced to withdraw. Angus was thus crowned world champion in the category.
He earned the same title in Italy in 2017, before capturing silver medals in 2018, 2019, and 2024.
“Every year, my goal is to win the title. The other judokas were younger athletes who are just entering the category. The calibre is very high in my group, so winning it is very gratifying!” explained Angus.
“I’m proud of the mental preparation I did. I’ve been having some back problems, but I knew that if I stuck to my strategy, I’d be okay. Before each match, I mentally reviewed my strategy so that I would stay focused, and it worked.”
Also in the men’s competition, Ivan Zaleskikh advanced to one of the bronze medal finals in the M3 under-73 kg division. He had a great start to the day, winning four bouts in a row. His first defeat came in the semi-finals, at the hands of Georgia’s Valeriane Gigiberia, who went on to win the gold medal. Zaleskikh then also lost to Bayarn Chinchuluun of Mongolia.
Justin Rashad Chin was defeated in the repechage in the M3 under-60 kg category, and finished the day with two wins and two losses.
Ryan Proulx (+100 kg, M1) and Amine Nasrallah (-90 kg, M2) were both eliminated in the first round, as were Paul Teleki and Yuriy Semenyuk in the M4 under-73 kg pool. Olivier Bry (-90 kg, M6), Artur Targosinski (-73 kg, M7), and Billy-Jim Carman (-90 kg, M5) saw similar results.
Quentin Chevat (-66 kg, M2), Razvan Pasalic (-73 kg, M2), Jeff Allen (+100 kg, M3), Erwan Alain Goasdoue (-73 kg, M5), and Ahmed Hellal Cherrak (-100 kg, M5) had one win and one loss each, while Michael Morgenroth (-100 kg, M7) finished with one win and two losses.
A first for Laurie Wiltshire
Ronald Angus was not the only Canadian to stand atop the podium in Paris. Laurie Wiltshire repeated the feat on Friday in the F3 under-57 kg category.
The Albertan ousted France’s Angélique Duriez in her opening bout, following up with a victory over Spain’s Maria Ongay Varela. In the big final, Wiltshire disposed of France’s Marie-Anne Lavollot thanks to two waza-ari.
It’s the first world championship title for Wiltshire, who won bronze last year in Las Vegas.
This year, in the F4 over-78 kg group, Amanda McAlpine secured a bronze medal.
After losing her opening bout to France’s Severine Kougnon, who went on to win the silver medal, the Ontario native continued to battle hard, coming back strong to defeat Ecuador’s Katty Hurtado and clinch the bronze medal.
Another Canadian, Bianca Ockedahl, came very close to stepping onto the podium in Paris. She recorded two wins and two losses in the F3 under-52 kg category, including a loss in the bronze medal final.
Mariko Glover lost both her matches in the F4 under-70 kg division and finished fifth.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
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