Quebec juggernaut Louis Krieber-Gagnon had a two-two-loss day at the Perth Open on Saturday, which still put him very close to a podium finish in Australia.
In action in the category up to 90 kg, the Montrealer easily defeated Eljan Hajiyev from Azerbaijan after winning the first round. Krieber-Gagnon, however, lost her next bout, in the quarterfinals, to South Korea’s Sungho Lee.
After falling out in the repechage, the 27-year-old judoka did not give up and won the duel against the Czech David Klammert. In the bronze medal final against Great Britain’s Jamal Petgrave, Krieber-Gagnon was unfortunately unable to win, seeing his opponent score a waza-ari which was enough for Victory. The Quebecer then finished fifth in the category.
In Friday’s action, Julien Frascadore was looking to make another podium finish after winning silver at the Pan American Games in Santiago in late October. In the 66 kg category, the day started with a convincingly fast first round win against Ghana’s Dominic Agudoo, followed by a second win against Colombia’s Juan Hernandez.
In the quarter-finals, things got tough for the 23-year-old athlete, who felt he had a poor run at the end of his bout against Finn Luukas Saha, the day’s eventual silver medallist.
“I had a waza-ari with 30 seconds left in the fight and then I couldn’t finish the fight and lost on penalties in overtime. I was disappointed because it was a fight I dominated and should have won,” he commented.
This defeat took Frascadore into a repechage against Italy’s Mattia Miceli, where he also had to concede defeat in the final moments of the duel, which at the end of the day placed him in seventh place.
“It was a very tactical fight and he took me for a waza-ari with little time on the board. Once again it was a fight that was within reach. Overall today (Friday) was not my best performance nor the desired result, but I still managed to gain good experience with four fights. »
In the 52 kg draw, Alberta’s Kelly Deguchi lost in a curtain raiser to Taipei’s Hsu-Wan-Chu Lin.
Taking advantage of passing in the first round in the category over 100 kg, Marc Deschênes lost his first fight in front of the Slovenian representative Vito Dragić.
