Montréal, July 29, 2024 – World quantity one-ranked under-57 kg judoka Christa Deguchi achieved her objective on Monday on the Champ-de-Mars Enviornment. Following an exceptional run, she captured her first-ever Olympic medal—gold—thus making her mark on Canadian judo historical past by changing into the nation’s first Olympic judo champion.
Greeted by a loud crowd from the second she stepped onto the tatamis, the two-time world champion placed on an excellent present within the hotly contested remaining towards South Korea’s Mimi Huh, who obtained a 3rd shido in extra time, enabling the Canadian to safe the win.
Picture : CPJ
“I nonetheless can’t consider it. Making all of it the way in which to Paris to compete within the Olympics has been fairly an journey for me,” admitted Deguchi.
“I knew that if I might compete at my greatest, I might do it, however my fights weren’t all that nice in the present day. I obtained fortunate. I didn’t win the way in which I might have appreciated to, however I’m very happy with the truth that I by no means gave up till I received.”
Earlier on Monday, the Albertan skilled an analogous situation within the semi-final, the place she was pitted towards France’s Sarah-Léonie Cysique, the silver medallist on the Tokyo Video games.
The 2 judokas battled it out in a bodily exhausting bout that put their abilities on full show. Following quite a few assaults by each events, Deguchi prevailed in extra time when the house crowd favorite obtained a 3rd penalty for placing her hand up her opponent’s sleeve.
Deguchi, for whom judo is a household affair, obtained off to a wonderful begin on Monday, defeating Panama’s Kristine Jimanez by ippon in just one minute.
She then demonstrated her expertise as soon as once more within the quarter-final with a fast victory by waza-ari over Serbia’s Marica Perisic.
Arthur Margelidon bows out in repechage
On the boys’s aspect, Arthur Margelidon additionally gave his all within the under-73 kg weight division. The Québécois, who’s ranked ninth on this planet in his class, ended the event in seventh place after advancing to the repechage.
“It’s too dangerous, as a result of I really feel prefer it’s all the time inside my attain, however I’m by no means in a position to seize on to it. It’s prefer it’s all the time dangling in entrance of me, however every time I am going to seize it, somebody lures it away and offers it to another person,” stated the judoka, dissatisfied at not having secured an Olympic medal.
In entrance of 1000’s of spectators, together with members of his household, the Montrealer fought as laborious as he might earlier than being eradicated by two-time World Championships silver medallist Manuel Lombardo of Italy. Simply lower than a minute into the battle, Lombardo threw Margelidon onto the bottom to attain an ippon and clinch the victory.
“I made an error. It was an absence of consideration. I wasn’t essentially dominating the battle, however I felt like I might win it. My arm obtained caught, and he utilized his approach at precisely the best second, so I had no selection however to show to that aspect,” Margelidon defined calmly, following the match.
Having received his first two bouts of the day, Margelidon misplaced the quarter-final by ippon to world champion Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan after six minutes of extra time.
“With any loss, when you don’t get again up, it could possibly make you much less of an athlete, however once you do handle to get again up once more, it might imply you solely have another step to go earlier than you attain the highest,” added the judoka, who intends to regain the higher hand within the males’s workforce occasion.
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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada
For extra data:
Patrick Esparbès
Chief Working Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org
