Team Canada won three medals at the International Judo Grand Slam in Paris last weekend. In the women’s 57-kilogram weight class, Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta, won the silver medal and Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario won bronze. In the men’s over 81 kilograms, Francois Gauthier-Drapeau of Alma, Quebec, won bronze.
In the women’s 57kg event on Friday, Faiza defeated Mokdar Deguchi in the final to claim gold. Deguchi won Pool A with victories over Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo of Mongolia, Momo Tamaoki of Japan and Veronica Toniolo of Italy. Deguchi then defeated Sarah Leonie Cysique from France in the semifinals. Klimkait defeated Nok Lam Yeung of Hong Kong, Priscilla Gneto of France and Marica Perisic of Serbia to win Group C. Klimkait then lost to Mokdar in the semifinals before defeating Nora Gjakova of Kosovo in the repechage to take bronze. Cysique won the other bronze medal.
Deguchi has now won 13 Grand Slam medals (eight gold, four silver and one bronze). Klimkait has won 17 Grand Slam medals (six gold, four silver and ten bronze). In the women’s weight class up to 57 kilograms, Deguchi is in first place in the world with 8,195 points and Klimkait is in second place with 7,600 points. According to Paula Nichols, Francois Lafleur and Michael Charlebois of the Canadian Olympic Committee On Monday the Canadian representative was there in the women’s weight class up to 57 kilograms 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will be the judoka at the top of the world rankings on June 25th.
In the men’s 81-kilogram event, Gauthier-Drapeau won his sixth career bronze medal at the IJF Grand Slam level (all bronze medals) on Saturday. In Paris, Gauthier-Drapeau won Pool D after victories over Bolor-Ochir Gereltuya from Mongolia, Yuhei Oino from Japan and Dominic Ressel from Germany. After losing to Zelim Tckaev of Azerbaijan in the semifinals, Gauthier-Drapeau defeated Mihail Latisev of Macedonia to win bronze. Matthias Casse of Belgium won gold, Tckaev won silver and Timur Arbuzov of the neutral individual athletes won the other bronze medal. In the world rankings, Gauthier-Drapeau is in fifth place with 4,495 points. Casse leads with 8527 points.
“Gamer. Introvert. Problem solver. Creator. Thinker. Lifelong food evangelist. Alcohol advocate.”