Montréal, March 2, 2025 – Yehor Paladii put up a solid fight in the bronze medal round, at the end of his Sunday at the Judo Junior European Cup in Malaga, Spain. The Ontario judoka was unfortunately bested in the very last moments of his bout against Estonia’s Jakob Vares, and had to settle for fifth place finish in the Under 100kg class.
“Yehor made a few mistakes in his bronze medal match. He was ahead at the start of the bout, but he took risks that cost him quite a lot in the end. He did however demonstrate great things against the best judokas in the world. It’s certainly frustrating to finish fifth, but we learned some lessons that can help us in the future,” sagely commented Canada’s Coach Sasha Mehmedovic.
Paladii started the day with a marathon duel, where he lost after earning a third penalty in overtime. Yet the 18-year-old didn’t need much time to win the repechage against Spain’s Aritz Lavado Reta. He then used the same playbook to face Cai Castany Crespo (Spain), to secure a ticket to a bronze medal final.
Notably, this is only Paladii’s second competition in the Under 100kg class, having previously competed in the Under 90kg category.
In women’s judo action, British Colombia’s Carla Van Zyl was the only Canadian judoka to win on Sunday in Malaga.
In the Under 57kg category, Van Zyl won her first two duels of the day: one against Israel’s Lilach Pantanowitz and the other against Poland’s Kalina Zozulinska.
However, the Canadian was then defeated in the quarter-finals by eventual gold medallist Emma Melis (France). Van Zyl was sadly unable to recover lost ground in the repechage, where she was defeated on the tatami by Israel’s Hili Zakroisky – the latter who finished her day on the third step of the podium.
Meanwhile, Hayden Thibeault (-57 kg) and Angelina McCristall (-48) lost their first duels of the day, while Valerie Kostrovets (-52 kg) was unable to score a win in two bouts on the mat.
On Saturday, Catherine Toshkov won the only Canadian medal of the weekend in Malaga, taking third place in the Under 63kg category.
Canada’s junior judokas will now head to Portimao, Portugal, for another Junior European Cup that kicks off next Saturday, March 8. Stay tuned to watch the future of Canadian judo!
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
For more information:
Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org