Gold for Ahmed Hellal Cherak at Veteran World Championships

Montréal, November 10, 2024 – Several Canadian athletes were in action this past week in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Veteran World Championships and World Kata Championships. In the veteran category, 14 Canadians will return home with medals around their necks, including Ahmed Hellal Cherak, newly crowned world champion in the under-100 kg M5 category.

Ahmed Hellal Cherak Photo IJF

The Québécois kicked off his flawless run by ousting George Pissimissis of the USA, following up with a second win against Philippe Baccou of France. He then secured his ticket to the final by defeating Argentina’s Alejandro Centeno in the semi-final.

In the day’s ultimate showdown, Cherak was pitted against Robert Krause of Germany. He won by ippon after two and a half minutes of combat.

Jeff Allen (+100 kg, M2) and Bianca Ockedahl (-52 kg, F3) were the two other Canadians to reach the finals.

Allen, 39, won his first three bouts of the day before losing to Brazil’s Rubens Filho in the gold medal match.

As for 42-year-old Ockedahl, she defeated Ana Lucia Perugachi of Ecuador and Elen Merelli of Italy before losing to Lucie Bronner of France in the final.

Ronald Angus (-100 kg, U8) secured a silver medal following a round-robin tournament in which he posted a record of three wins and only one loss.

Warren Seib (-81 kg, M1), Justin Rashad Chin (-60 kg, M3), Ivan Zaleskikh (-73 kg, M3), Michael Yee (-66 kg, M4), Christopher Smiley (-81 kg, M4), Tim Takashi (-60 kg, M5), Olivier Bry (-90 kg, M6), Kevin Hamer (-73 kg, M8), Laurie Wiltshire (-57 kg, F3), and Isabelle Gélinas (-52 kg, F4) all won bronze medals.

Kata action aplenty

At the World Kata Championships in Las Vegas, Thomas Warolin and Zachary Mainville were the only Canadians to qualify for the final rounds. The duo took sixth place in the U23 Nage-no-Kata final, with 341 points.

In senior Nage-no-Kata, Canada was represented by Isack Berger and Jean-Sébastien Roy, as well as by Shane Rooney and Xiao Kang Hu. Unfortunately, neither team qualified for the finals.

In the senior Katame-no-Kata category, neither the duo comprised of Kelly Palmer and Wesley Enns, nor the one comprised of Edward Zupancic and Andrei Oudovikine finished in the top six. They therefore did not qualify for the finals.

Juliette Mireault and Simon Gauthier-Hansen also failed to qualify for the Ju-no-Kata final.

The tournament came to a close on Sunday with the Kime-no-Kata, Goshin Jutsu, U23 Katame-no-Kata, and U23 Ju-no-Kata events.

Canadians Shane Legros and Dan Rusu (Kime-no-Kata), Mario Pageau and Martin Vallières (Kime-no-Kata), Daniel Bird and Masoud Naeimi (Goshin Jutsu), Allyn Takahashi and Tony Walby (Goshin Jutsu), and Ivan Fournier and Pierre Pelletier (Goshin Jutsu) all failed to qualify for their respective finals.

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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