(Montreal) Christa Deguchi (57 kg) has had some good times in 2022, including victories at the Baku Grands Prix in July and Zagreb in November. On Tuesday, the Albertan made sure to end the year on the right foot by winning the gold medal at the Masters Tournament in Jerusalem, Israel.
The Canadian faced Frenchwoman and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Sarah Léonie Cysique in the grand final. The duel was fiercely contested, so extra time was needed to decide the winner. Deguchi finally managed to win after his opponent had to withdraw due to injury.
“It’s probably Christa’s best performance since her world championship title in 2019. In the final, it was a very closed fight, she still managed to place good attacks, but there were no points on the board after four minutes. Unfortunately the Frenchwoman injured her knee in overtime and the fight ended like that,” explained coach Antoine Valois-Fortier.
“Anything can happen in overtime, but I think Christa had the edge of the fight. She is very happy with her performance. It’s a great achievement for her to finally win the Masters Tournament for the first time,” added Valois-Fortier.
This ultimate triumph had areas of revenge for Deguchi, since Cysique had emerged victorious from the last duel between the two athletes at the Grand Slam in Antalya, Turkey, at the beginning of April.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Deguchi enjoyed a first-round bye. She then needed only 26 seconds to win her fight against the German Pauline Starke, then she continued her journey by winning against the Japanese Tsukasa Yoshida in the quarter-finals.
“She performed a spectacular ippon in less than 30 seconds to start the day,” commented Valois-Fortier. She continued her momentum in the next round against a strong opponent where Christa managed to score twice, a truly dominant performance. »
In the semi-finals, Deguchi had an appointment with the South Korean Mimi Huh. After a fight of just over two minutes, the representative of the maple leaf got the better of her young opponent thanks to two waza-aris, en route to a place in the grand final.
In the under 52 kg, her sister Kelly Deguchi was defeated in her first fight against the Spaniard Ana Perez Box. Kosovare Distria Krasniqi took top honors in this division ahead of Britain’s Chelsie Giles.
“Kelly is still progressing. The Spaniard was left-handed and left-handers are usually Kelly’s pet peeves. This time, she had a good fight, she spoke a lot, but she was finally surprised by an ippon”, concluded the Canadian coach.
The Jerusalem Masters Tournament will continue on Wednesday, with Arthur Margelidon (-73 kg), François Gauthier-Drapeau (-81 kg) and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kg) in action.