One Silver and Two Bronze for Cadets

Evelyn Beaton Third in Senior Category

Montréal, February 15, 2026 – Canada’s judokas picked up one silver medal and two bronze at the Cadet European Cup in Šamorín, Slovakia, on Sunday.

Photo European Judo Union – Matthew Molchanov 2nd

Matthew Molchanov (-90 kg) ended the day on the second step of the podium, while Franck David Moussima Ewane Elouti (+90 kg) and Nicole Daria Manaila (-52 kg) finished on the third.

Molchanov racked up four straight victories before being defeated by Tajus Babaicenko of Lithuania in the big final.

“He had a great tournament. He was very focused during his bouts, but he lost the final to the internationally number one-ranked judoka in his category. It was a difficult match for Molchanov, but he fought well,” explained Canadian coach Franck Moussima.

As for Moussima Ewane Elouti, he won his first bout, but bowed out to Nikola Lubura of Bosnia in the semi-finals. In the repechage, he defeated Luka Delevic of Serbia to clinch the bronze medal.

“A strong point of his day was his ability to motivate himself once again for his repechage match,” noted the coach.

On the women’s side, Manaila won three bouts before falling to Hungary’s Iza Bartyik in the semi-finals. She then advanced to the repechage, where she secured the bronze medal with a victory over Isabela Ioana Neagu of Romania.

“[Nicole Daria] had an excellent day. Unfortunately, an early error in the semi-finals cost her the match, so she didn’t have the opportunity to show what she was capable of. But in all her other bouts, her ground work was very strong, and she didn’t give anything up to her opponents. In my opinion, it was one of the best performances we saw today. She did great work, and her judo was very impressive,” said the coach.

Emiliya Aliyeva (+70 kg) ended the day with one win and two losses, while Victoria Summers (-63 kg) was limited to a single match.

In the men’s under-81 kg weight class, Emelyan Sokolov won one of his two bouts. In the same category, Lucas Gabriele lost his only bout of the day.

Bronze for Beaton

Alberta’s Evelyn Beaton (-52 kg) secured a bronze medal on Sunday at the Senior European Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

She prevailed in her first two bouts before succumbing to Ilaria Finestrone of Italy in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal final, she ousted Chiara Serra of Germany to claim the prize.

Beaton was the only Canadian in action in Ljubljana on Sunday. In order to reach the semi-finals, she had earlier defeated Nicole Stakhov of Germany and Alessandra Rocco of Italy.

“She wasn’t satisfied with her performance, but a medal is a medal!” said her coach, Janusz Pawlowski.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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