(Paris) The paths to a medal for the two Quebecers in action at the judo tournament at the Paris Olympic Games on Tuesday will have to go through the repechage rounds.
Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (63 kg) and François Gauthier-Drapeau (81 kg) both lost their quarterfinal bouts, blocking their access to the top two steps of the podium. Two victories in the afternoon, at the Champ-de-Mars arena, would, however, give them one of the two bronze medals at stake.
Beauchemin-Pinard lost to Slovenian Andjrea Leski. The 30-year-old Quebecer, seeded second in the competition and a bronze medallist at the Tokyo Games, was defeated by waza-ari. Leski, a two-time world vice-champion and seventh in the world rankings, managed to pin Beauchemin-Pinard to the ground for 10 seconds after 1:39 of overtime to score the only point of the duel.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard and Andjrea Leski
The St-Hubert athlete will face Kosovar Laura Fazliu in the repechage, third in the world, who beat her at the last World Championships in the bronze medal match.
After a bye in the first round, Beauchemin-Pinard defeated the Hungarian ranked 13the Szofi Ozbas by ippon after 3:27 of action in the round of 16. Trapped by the Quebecer, Ozbas could not resist the projection from behind by her opponent.
On the men’s side, Gauthier-Drapeau, the fifth seed in the competition, lost after 2:06 of overtime against the Italian Antonio Esposito, when he received a third penalty, this one for non-combativity, a decision booed by the 8,000 spectators gathered on site.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
François Gauthier-Drapeau and Joao Fernando
The athlete from Alma, who is competing in his first Olympic Games, also had a bye in the first round. He then beat the Portuguese ranked 24th one after the othere Joao Fernandez on penalties, as well as Puerto Rican Adrian Gandia, 38e in the world, on two waza-ari achieved in 2:52.
In the repechage, he will face the Belgian Mathieu Casse, no 1 in the world. Casse had eliminated the national team’s head coach, Antoine Valois-Fortier, at the same stage in Tokyo, en route to the bronze medal. Casse also won the world title in 2023, in addition to being a two-time world vice-champion.
The action will resume at 4 p.m. local time.