MONTREAL – The Canadian men’s team won the silver medal in team competition Sunday at the Pan-American judo championships.
Guillaume Perreault (+90 kilogram), Michael Fortin-Demers (-66 kilogram), Dylaver Sheykhislyamov (-90 kilogram), Justin Imagawa (-73 kilogram), Kalem Kachur (-81 kilogram) and Nedjo Sarenac (+90 kilogram) combined to defeat the Dominican Republic, Chile and Mexico.
Only the Cuban squad were able to get the better of the Canadians.
By finishing in the top-2, the Canadians qualified for the World Team Championships next year in Brazil.
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“Judo Canada might not send a team down, but if they decide to, it’s nice to know we got the job done,” said Perreault of Val D’or, Que.
Perreault had to fight in the +90 kilogram class, despite normally competing in the under 90 kg category.
“Nicolas (Gill), coach of the national team, wanted to make sure I saw some action,” he said. “I really enjoyed the experience. Judo is an individual sport, so to know that you can still win even if you lose your bout, that takes a lot of the pressure off.”
On the women’s side, the Canadians finished with a bronze but failed to qualify for next year’s World Team Championships.
Audree Francis-Methot (-52 kilogram), Nicole Jenicek (-57 kilogram), Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kilogram), Alix Renaud-Roy (-70 kilogram), Yacinthan Nguyen-Huu (-70 kilogram) et Sophie Vaillancourt (+78 kilogram) beat the Mexicans, but subsequently fell to the gold medal winning Cubans and Colombians.
“Unlike other nations, we decided to go with a younger contingent of judokas instead of our first choice veterans,” said Gill. “It was a way of giving our young up-and-comers some much needed experience, especially since they’ll all be a big part of the Olympic qualification process in 2016.”
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