Short Stints at the Junior World Championships

Montréal, October 3, 2024 – All three Canadians who competed at the Junior World Judo Championships in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Thursday were eliminated in their first rounds. In the under-57 kg weight category, Catherine Toshkov (Quebec) and Laurence Gagnon (Quebec) finished with 0-1 records, as did Félix Mercier-Ross (Quebec) in the under-73 kg division.

Photo IJF
Catherine Toshkov (in white).

After receiving a first-round bye, Gagnon lost by two waza-ari to China’s To Yuying, who later captured the silver medal. Toshkov was defeated by ippon in overtime by Mirja Pollheimer of Switzerland.

Mercier-Ross, who at 20 years old is in his final year of eligibility for the Juniors, lost to Chile’s Tomas Hernandez by ippon.

“For all three of them, it was their first time at the Junior World Championships. I’m not using that as an excuse, but still, I don’t think they performed to their full potential today,” explained Canadian coach Sasha Mehmedovic. “Because of their lack of experience, they had trouble handling the pressure. We should have seen some wins, which was of course the goal, because it was in fact a realistic possibility. But after the warm-up, I could see that the pressure was getting to them, and they weren’t able to implement the plan we had come up with.”

The large, boisterous crowd also added to the pressure, according to Mehmedovic.

“When you’re not used to that kind of thing, it can be hard. Here, the bleachers are full, the crowd is waving flags, and there’s a lot of noise. It’s a really great atmosphere. It’s very different from the Canadian Championships and the Pan-American Championships. They love judo here and they have a great program, because they won two Olympic medals this year.”

Gagnon and Toshkov will have a chance at redemption next year, as they’re both 18 years old.

“Some of the lessons we learned here are, ‘What do we need to work on?’, ‘What happened here?’ Then, when we get back to training, we’ll make the necessary changes so that those things don’t happen again,” concluded the coach.

The final Canadian to hit the tatamis will be John Jr. Messé A Bessong (+100 kg) on Saturday. The Québécois is the cadet world champion in his category and the country’s best hope at the Junior World Championships.

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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