Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta, won the gold medal at the 2024 Baku Grand Slam of Judo on Friday. It was Deguchi’s ninth Grand Slam title of her career. Deguchi was one of three Canadian judokas to win a medal over the weekend. Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard of Montreal, Quebec, won the silver medal in the women’s 63-kilogram class on Saturday, and Arthur Margelidon of Montreal won bronze in the men’s 73-kilogram class on Saturday. Beauchemin-Minard won the bronze medal in the women’s 63 kilogram class at the 2020 Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.
Deguchi threw Pool A undefeated. She defeated Altantseg Batsukh of the United Arab Emirates, Julia Kowalczyk of Poland and Daria Bilodid of Ukraine. Deguchi then defeated Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia in the semifinals before defeating silver medalist Nora Gjakova of Kosovo in the final. Bilodid and Liparteliani won bronze medals.
Beauchemin-Pinard also won Pool A. There she defeated Sevinch Isokova of Uzbekistan and Magdalena Krssakova of Austria before defeating Szofi Ozbas of Hungary in the semifinals. Lubjana Piovesana of Austria won the gold medal, while Ozbas and Joanne Van Lieshout of the Netherlands shared the bronze medal.
Margelidon defeated Heoncheol Kang of South Korea and Ibrahim Aliyev of Azerbaijan in his first two matches before losing to Abubakr Sherov of Tajikistan. Margelidon then won both repechage matches and took bronze by defeating Joan-Benjamin Gaba of France and Rashid Mammadaliyev of Azerbaijan. Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan won gold, Sherov won silver and Ejder Toktay of Turkey won the other bronze medal. The medals for Margelidon, Deguchi and Beauchemin-Minard will give them confidence as they prepare 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
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