Shady El Nahas would have liked to do more in the under 100 kg category at the Grand Prix in Zagreb, Croatia. The Ontarian was limited to two fights, accumulating a record of one win and one loss.
Posted at 4:05 p.m.
El Nahas started the competition strong with an ippon win over Croatian Zlatko Kumric. The 24-year-old’s workday, however, came to an end in the next round when he was stunned by Hungarian Veg Zsombor.
“Shady offered a great opening fight against the Croatian. He then met a young Hungarian who we have seen progress enormously in recent times. Shady seemed to lack energy in the second half of the fight and Zsombor managed to counter it,” explained coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.
It was El Nahas’ first competition since the Senior Pan Am Championships in April where he won the gold medal.
“Maybe there was a bit of rust that had set in. It had been a while since he had competed and I think he needed to get back into the swing of things a bit. It’s better that it happens now than at the World Championships later this year,” added Valois-Fortier, assuring that Shady El Nahas’ preparation will be impeccable for the Worlds.
In the same category as El Nahas, Kyle Reyes was defeated in his first fight of the day when he was opposed to the Estonian Grigori Minaskin.
“Kyle was a bit disappointed, the Estonian has a rather particular style and I think he surprised Kyle. Minaskin was able to take control quite quickly by scoring an early point and he was able to finish the job afterwards even though Kyle fought hard,” concluded the Canadian coach.
Two bronze medals in Winterthur
Ian Ryder (-100 kg) and Coralie Godbout (-78 kg) both finished on the third step of the podium at the Senior European Cup in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Ryder was quick in his first two clashes of the day, winning back-to-back over Kazakh Begzat Shagatayev and New Zealander Jason Koster. These two victories allowed the Canadian to win his group.
In the semi-finals, Ryder was beaten by Dutchman Kylian Bulthuis, the eventual silver medalist. Ryder did not give up and recovered in fine fashion during his fight for the bronze medal against the Italian Andres Felipe Moreno after a marathon duel of more than 9 minutes.
For her part, Coralie Godbout faced adversity from the start of the day as she lost to New Zealander and eventual bronze medalist Moira De Villiers.
Godbout did not miss her second chance at the repechage, winning by ippon against the Austrian Marlene Hunger. Then, in the bronze final, the Quebecer scored two quick waza-aris against France’s Lou Anne Brustel to climb to the third step of the podium.
In action at -90 kg in Winterthur, Alexandre Arencibia was defeated from the outset against the German Richard Fiedler.
Nikola Petrovic at 3e rank in Paks
British Columbian Nikola Petrovic posted Canada’s top result at the European Junior Cup in Paks, Hungary, finishing with the bronze medal around his neck in the under 100 kg category.
Petrovic quickly won his first two fights to emerge victorious from his group, but he was defeated by Frenchman Kenny Liveze in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal fight, Petrovic needed just 23 seconds to win ahead of Georgian Erekle Bazierishvili.
Evelyn Beaton (-52kg) also had a good day’s work, finishing in fifth place. After three convincing wins early in the day, Beaton lost in the semifinals to eventual gold medalist Rebeka Keller of Hungary. She was then beaten by Germany’s Nicole Stakhov for the bronze medal.
Guillaume Gaulin (-81 kg, 0-1), David Popovici (-81 kg, 2-2), Xavier Godbout (-90 kg, 0-1), Alec Garand (-90 kg, 0-1), John Jr Messé A Bessong (+100 kg, 0-2), Charlize Isabelle Medilo (-48 kg, 1-2), Ekaterina Danilkov (-48 kg, 1-2), Kondelia Karas (-57 kg, 0-1) and Mahee Savoie (-57 kg, 0-1) were the other Canadian athletes in action in Paks.