Silver medallist in Antalya, François Gauthier-Drapeau records his career best Grand Slam result!

Montreal, March 30th, 2024 (Judo Canada) – François Gauthier-Drapeau won Canada’s second medal at the Antalya Grand Slam in Turkey. The Quebecer was awarded silver in the under-81 kg category on Saturday, 24 hours after Christa Deguchi’s triumph in the under-57 kg competition.

Photo: International Judo Federation

Gauthier-Drapeau squared off against defending Olympic champion Takanori Nagase of Japan in the final, the first of his Grand Slam career. A worthy opponent his coach Antoine Valois-Fortier was very familiar with, having faced him on several occasions as an athlete.

“It was a very close final! The fight was within François’ grasp, and there are a lot of good things to take away from it,” shared Valois-Fortier.

Ranked sixth in the world, François Gauthier-Drapeau attempted several attacks early in the fight, but failed to get on the scoreboard. The 26-year-old judoka also countered Nagase’s maneuvers and managed to force overtime. Both judokas were penalized 2 minutes and 43 seconds into extra time. As the Canadian had already been penalized on two occasions, the sequence ended the hostilities and awarded the victory to the Japanese.

“I’m delighted to have reached the final! Despite the loss, I think I put up a very good fight. I followed the game plan and it went well. It was a close call,” said François Gauthier-Drapeau.

“I like the fact that François was able to get his hands on Takanori Nagase in competition, mentioned Antoine Valois-Fortier. This first encounter will serve us well for the future and will be an important benchmark for the Olympic Games.”

Wins over Bulgaria’s Georgi Gramatikov and Uzbekistan’s Nurbek Murtozoev enabled François Gauthier-Drapeau to quickly find his rhythm in the tournament. He got the better of Portugal’s Joao Fernando to advance to the semi-finals where he battled the eventual bronze medallist Antonio Esposito from Italy.

“I was completely drained when I got to the final! It was a big achievement and an important step to win my semi-final, and I can already feel that something has clicked for me. I was more aggressive than in my last tournaments going for projections and it paid off,” said the athlete who, in addition to his second-place finish on Saturday, has six career Grand Slam bronze medals to his name.

“I have no doubt that when the stakes will be higher, François is going to win this fight. He had four good wins and dominated all his opponents. It’s a great day for him,” added his coach.

Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard finished seventh in the under-63 kg category. Ranked first in the world in her weight class, the Canadian judoka got her tournament off to a good start on Saturday. She first defeated Spain’s Sarai Padilla Guerrero, before getting the better of Turkey’s Habibe Afyonlu.

The Tbilisi Grand Slam gold medallist lost to eventual bronze medallist Katarina Kristo of Croatia, and then headed for the repechage where she fell to Austria’s Magdalena Krssakova.

“It was a demanding weekend in Tbilisi, and back-to-back competitions like that aren’t easy, stated Antoine Valois-Fortier. We knew it was a tall order, but she still did some great things today.”

Competing in the under-73 kg division, Montreal native and world number ten Arthur Margelidon lost his first bout of the day to Abubakr Sherov of Tajikistan.

The Antalya Grand Slam concludes on Sunday. Shady ElNahas and Kyle Reyes will both be in action in the under-100 kg category. Louis Krieber Gagnon (-90 kg) and Ana Laura Portuondo-Isasi (+78 kg) will also be in the spotlight in their respective categories.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

For more information:

Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org