Fifteen Medals for Canada at Cadet Pan-American Championships

Montréal, April 28, 2026 – Canada’s young judokas made their mark on Tuesday at the Cadet Pan-American Judo Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In total, the Canadian team collected 15 medals, including four gold medals awarded to Roman Semyrozun (-60 kg), Anes Mati (-66 kg), Dalia Benhamou (-44 kg), and Nicole Daria Manaila (-48 kg).

Gabrieli Makhatadze (-55 kg), Amir Temirbaev (-60 kg), Drake Gregory (-81 kg), and Victoria Summers won silver in their respective weight categories.

With four bouts on his schedule, Mati had the busiest day of competition. Following victories over Caleb Moya of Costa Rica and Thiago Carvalo of Argentina, the Québécois—who placed fifth at the most recent Cadet World Championships—defeated Bruno Sacilotto of Brazil by ippon in the semi-finals.

He then capped off his day with a triumph over Daniel Lima of the USA in the finals.

“Anes competed very well. His semi-final victory over the Brazilian was probably his most spectacular of the day. It was a long, full day, but he managed it well from start to finish,” noted Canadian coach Antoine Bouchard.

In the under-60 kg finals, Semyrozun was pitted against his compatriot Temirbaev, whom he defeated expeditiously.

“It’s unfortunate that two Canadians had to fight each other, but at the same time, it’s proof that they both did a great job today. Roman bested Amir in the first sequence with a quick attack, so it was a shorter bout than we expected, but that’s to his credit, because it’s not easy to catch an opponent off guard when they know you well,” Bouchard explained.

Earlier, Semyrozun had secured his ticket to the finals by dispatching of Peru’s Piero Herrera and Brazil’s Rafael Falcao.

Meanwhile, Benhamou had to fight hard in the finals to overcome her opponent, Anna Clara Mendes of Brazil. But the athlete from Saint-Hyacinthe ultimately prevailed after 75 seconds of overtime.

She had defeated Argentina’s Brisa Mercado and Ecuador’s Daniela Rodriguez Manzaba earlier in the day.

“Dalia’s ippon in the finals was a big one. She had made several nice throws during the day, but her final match was really long. However, she pulled off a big counterattack to clinch the gold medal.”

Manaila also remained undefeated throughout the tournament, racking up three wins in as many matches. Much like her teammate Benhamou, however, she was pushed to her limits in the finals by Gabriela Pereira of Brazil. Fortunately, the overtime round was brief. Pereira received three shidos, thus granting the win to the Canadian.

In her first bout of the day, Manaila had also forced Leonela Arevalo of Ecuador to take three penalties. She then went on to defeat Silvana Donayre of Peru in the semi-finals.

“[Nicole Daria] managed the bout well, setting the tempo slowly but surely. She put a lot of pressure on her opponents, so it came as no surprise that they ended up committing violations,” noted the Canadian coach.

Giorgi Kurashvili (-50 kg), Jasur Aliyev (-70 kg), Matthew Molchanov (-90 kg), Ahniia Grebennikova (-52 kg), Emma Tritton (-57 kg), Angelina Kioreskou (-70 kg), and Emilya Aliyeva (+70 kg) all won bronze medals today.

The Pan-American Championships will continue on Wednesday in Guayaquil, with the junior tournaments taking centre stage.

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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