Ontarian Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) had one of the best days of work of his career on Tuesday at the World Judo Championships in Tashkent. Perfect until the grand final, the 29-year-old athlete lost against local hero Muzaffarbek Turoboyev and will finally leave Uzbekistan as vice-world champion.
Posted yesterday at 2:40 p.m.
The final ended controversially. The Uzbek had already received two penalties and seemed on the verge of receiving a third in the eyes of commentators for non-combativeness, with around thirty seconds to go. The referee did not award a penalty on the sequence and Turoboyev took the opportunity to win in extra time by throwing Reyes to the ground.
“I had trouble applying our game plan at the start of the fight, but I managed to tire him out enough to take some advantage. However, I was unable to score any points. I tried to push a little harder in overtime, but he countered me quickly to take the advantage and take the victorious point, ”said Kyle Reyes.
“It was a difficult decision for the official to make at the end of the fight. I didn’t attack much, but he didn’t do anything either. If I had been a little more intense, I think the referee would have had no choice but to award him a third penalty,” added the Ontarian.
Reyes started the tournament strong in the group stage winning four bouts in quick succession. He beat Hungary’s Miklos Cirjenics, Slovakia’s Benjamin Mataseje, Mongolia’s Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag and Georgia’s Ilia Sulamanidze to clinch his ticket to the semi-finals.
In a hard-fought duel, the Canadian then defeated Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan to join Turoboyev in the grand final.
“At first, I was not very happy. During the final, I saw that the gold medal was within my reach. The fight just ended and I’m still disappointed, but it’s going well and I’ll be even prouder in a few days. »
This is Canada’s third medal at the World Championships in Tashkent after Jessica Klimkait’s bronze on Saturday and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard’s silver on Sunday.
Disappointment for Shady ElNahas
Shady ElNahas (-100 kg) also had great expectations at these worlds. Unfortunately for him, his ambitions did not materialize on Tuesday and he had to settle for seventh place following a loss in the repechage.
After convincing victories against the Serb Aleksandar Kukolj and the Spaniard Nikoloz Sherazadishvili, ElNahas gave up against Muzaffarbek Turoboyev, the eventual scorer of Kyle Reyes and world champion in the category.
“I had lost twice against the Serb in the past. I had studied him well and knew what I had to do to beat him. The Spaniard was a two-time world champion at -90kg, but it was a perfect matchup for me. I was comfortable against him,” commented ElNahas.
“Against Uzbek, I was convinced that I had everything it took to beat him. He kind of headbutted me and I think he should have been disqualified on that, but the referees saw the sequence in a different way,” he said.
Hampered by a minor injury, ElNahas struggled to find his rhythm in the repechage and eventually lost to Belgian Toma Nikiforov to end his medal hopes. Still, the 24-year-old Ontarian is confident he can bounce back quickly from what he considers a poor performance.
“I didn’t have all my mind, it was difficult mentally because I was obviously aiming for gold for the World Championships, there was no question of a seventh place for me. I have to prove that I am the best and I intend to do so in the next competitions,” he concluded.
Marc Deschênes (+100 kg) will be the last Canadian in action in Tashkent on Wednesday.
