Two Silvers for Canada in the Team Competition

Montréal, April 30, 2026 – On the heels of their impressive 30-medal haul in the individual events earlier this week, Canada’s judokas added two more silver medals to their tally during Thursday’s team competitions at the Cadet and Junior Pan-American Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

For Canada’s junior athletes, the finals got off to a rough start. Facing Brazil, Artem Neyolov, Olivia Wosniowski, and Merab Iokhmusashvili lost the first three bouts of the finals.

However, Hayden Thibeault managed to turn the tide in her under-57 kg bout against Larissa Menezes. Then, Lowan Le Bris continued the comeback by defeating Jose Tiago Filho in a highly charged match.

Unfortunately for the Canadians, though, Sophia Camara subsequently bested Charlie Thibault in an interminable combat that was decided in overtime. Brazil ultimately prevailed 4-2 to claim the top honours.

“The level of competition in the finals was very high. And even though we fell behind early, we had some strong moments in those first few bouts. Hayden and Lowan battled hard to bring us back. Charlie’s opponent was truly excellent, and we can draw many positives from these finals,” stated Canadian coach Antoine Bouchard.

“All our cadets, as well as the other juniors, made a lot of noise during the finals to cheer us on, especially when we got those wins. That’s always a great energy boost,” he added.

Earlier today, Canada’s juniors secured their spot in the finals by winning their first two series, against Chile and Ecuador, in four straight bouts each.

For the cadets, the road to the finals was much shorter, as the Argentinean team, Canada’s first opponent, withdrew from the competition before the action began. Canada’s cadets thus advanced directly to the finals, where they too faced Brazil. However, Amir Temirbaev, Nicole Daria Manaila, Jasur Aliyev, and Emiliya Aliyeva lost four bouts in a row, despite putting up strong fights against their opponents.

“It’s too bad we didn’t get to fight Argentina, because we lost out on additional matches, which is kind of the point of the team competition. Yes, we lost four bouts, but that doesn’t reflect how the bouts really went. For example, Amir lost after four minutes of overtime, Jasur landed a big throw during his bout, and Nicole and Emiliya did very well too,” concluded Bouchard.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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