Multiple medals for Team Canada at Pan American and Oceania Championships
Team Canada took home multiple medals over the Easter weekend at the Pan American and Oceanic Championships in Lima, Peru.
The haul started on Friday with Team Canada winning a pair of bronze, thanks to the efforts of Kelly Deguchi and Antoine Bouchard. Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard added a different colour to the collection as she took home silver for Canada.
READ: Beauchemin-Pinard’s rise to 63 kg allows him to climb the podium at Tokyo 2020
A good day for Team
— Judo Canada (@JudoCanada) April 16, 2022
Une bonne journée pour l’équipe canadienne
-52kg Kelly Deguchi
-63kg @catherinebp94
-73kg @BouchardJudo
After defeating Mexico’s Paulina Martinez to advance to the finals, Deguchi faced off with Panama’s Kristine Jimenez in the bronze medal game. Coming away with a medal now, the Deguchi adds another Panamerican Championships medal to her resume after winning bronze in 2021.
Similarily to Deguchi, Bouchard’s path to the podium ran through a recharge match where he faced off against Columbia’s Arkangel Barboza. After defeating Barboaza, Bouchard advanced to the bronze medal game where he defeated Brazil’s Daniel Cargnin. His bronze medal marked the 60th of his career and his first since November of 2020.
As for Beauchemin-Pinard’s silver medal, her podium run went through both a quarter-final and semi-final. In the quarter-final and Semi-final Beauchemin-Pinard downed USA’s Alisha Gilles and Cuba’s Yusmari Reyes Laffita respectively. Beauchemin-Pinard kept the momentum going right through the final but would be met by Australia’s Katharina Haecker. Haecker would go on to secure the gold medal while Beauchemin-Pinard won silver.
Outside of the World Championships, Beauchemin-Pinard has found success on the biggest stage of them all: the Olympics. In 2020, the Montreal, Que., native appeared in her second-career Olympic Games. After winning a silver medal at the 2016 Pan American Championships, Beauchemin-Pinard booked her ticket to Rio where she made her Olympic debut in the 57kg weight class. In the following 2020 Games, Beauchemin-Pinard won her first-ever Olympic medal in Tokyo with bronze in the women’s 63kg.
In the men’s -81kg category, Team Canada won a pair of medals with matching bronze from Francois Gauthier Drapeau and Etienne Briand.