(Tokyo) Canada’s Shady El Nahas won his first two bouts in the 100kg judo tournament at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the competition.
The Mississauga judoka, eighth in the world and eighth seed at Nippon Budokan, first defeated United Arab Emirates representative Ivan Remarenco, 55e, by immobilization.
In his second fight, El Nahas started the confrontation in force against Azeri Zelym Kotsoiev. He first knocked down whoever follows him in the world rankings to register a waza-ari. Then, after 56 seconds of action, the referee indicated an ippon in favor of the Canadian, but the decision was overturned by the judges.
Both El Nahas and his coach, Sasha Mehmedovic, did not seem to understand this decision. No more than Kotsoiev, who put his head with both hands on the tatami.
Regardless, the two continued their fight and El Nahas finally picked up the ippon at 3:02.
The task promises to be tough in the quarter-finals, as the 23-year-old Ontarian faces Georgian and No. 1 seed in the Olympic tournament Varlam Liparteliani, defender of Egyptian Ramadan Darwish in the round of 16, by accumulating penalties .
A defeat, however, would not mean the end of the Canadiens tournament, since he would then advance to the draft fights. A victory would propel him directly to the semi-finals.
Portuguese Jorge Fonseca, 2019 and 2021 world champion, is ranked second in the competition. He and Liparteliani took advantage of a pass in the first round.
None of the Rio de Janeiro Games medalists participate in the Tokyo Olympic tournament.
El Nahas participates in his first Olympic Games. He finished off the podium at the last Worlds, in March in Budapest, and is the reigning double champion of the Pan American Championships. He has also won three competitions on the International Judo Federation (IJF) world circuit, the most recent last March, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
