Seventh Place for François Gauthier-Drapeau and Coralie Godbout in Tokyo

Montréal, December 7, 2025 – Canadian judokas François Gauthier-Drapeau and Coralie Godbout finished seventh in their respective categories on Sunday at the Grand Slam in Tokyo, Japan. Both will depart the event having learned some valuable lessons.

Photo IJF (c) Emanuele Di Feliciantonio

In the under-81 kg weight category, Gauthier-Drapeau concluded the competition with two wins and two losses. The 27-year-old Canadian, who captured gold at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam last week, notched up two consecutive early victories over Poland’s Szymon Szulik and Hong Kong’s Kwok Wing Lee on Sunday, both by ippon. He was proud of his two wins, which set him on a positive course for the remainder of the tournament.

However, his momentum was dampened in the next round by Kaito Amano of Japan, who took advantage of an error by Gauthier-Drapeau to secure the victory.

“I thought I was fighting pretty well, but near the end, I tried a different technique, and he countered me. I wasn’t patient enough. I should have forced him to take penalties. Then I would have won. But I wanted to speed things up. What a disappointing way to lose! But it was a good lesson for me,” said the Québécois, who moved on to the repechage, where he bowed out to Zaur Dvalashvili of Georgia.

“[Dvalashvili] is one of my nemeses. It was tough. Today’s performance was one of my worst ever against him. I’m going to have to fully analyze it and do some serious work, because there are obviously some things I need to fix. Overall, seventh place is not all that great, but still, there’s a lot I can learn from my losses today.”

In the same weight category, Arthur Margelidon, who lost his first match to future bronze medallist Timur Arbuzov of Russia, was limited to only one bout.

In the under-66 kg division, Julien Frascadore finished with one win and one loss. He began his day with a victory over Jacob Yang of the USA, before being eliminated by Shinsei Hattori of Japan, who captured a bronze medal at the end of the day.

On the women’s side, Coralie Godbout competed in the under-78 kg weight class. After receiving a first-round bye, she dispatched of Russia’s Alexandra Riabchenko in her first bout of the day. Her next opponent was Kurena Ikeda of Japan, who is ranked seventh in the world.

“It went pretty well for the most part, but we were on the ground for way too long. Nothing was really happening, and we just let things run their course. But I did have to defend myself, and eventually, she got me,” explained Godbout, who was facing Ikeda for the third time in her career. And for the third time, the Japanese athlete ultimately prevailed. Ikeda went on to claim the category’s gold medal.

As for Godbout, she moved on to the repechage, where she faced another tough opponent in Inbar Lanir of Israel, who also ranks in the category’s international top ten. Lanir won by yuko, thus putting an end to the Canadian’s day.

“I felt good throughout the bout, and I didn’t feel that she was dominating. In fact, I was in control for most of the match, except for that yuko that seemed to come out of nowhere.”

Just over a month ago, Godbout finished seventh at the Guadalajara Grand Prix in Mexico. Her performance there was similar to Sunday’s in Japan, and she lost to the same opponents.

“Losing those two bouts was disappointing, obviously. But still, I feel good about the competition, overall. I’m continuing to improve, and I’m able to hold my own against girls in the top ten. I know what I need to work on to more effectively complete my techniques,” said a motivated Godbout.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

For more information:

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