Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard won a second straight fifth place at a Grand Slam tournament on Saturday in Antalya (Turkey). The Quebec judoka was defeated by Austria’s Magdalena Krssakova in one of the two finals for bronze in the under 63 kg category.
Posted at 3:47 p.m.
Beauchemin-Pinard quickly took control of his last fight of the day by mastering his opponent well and chaining various attacks. The Tokyo Games bronze medalist even scored a valuable point after knocking Krssakova to the ground in the first minute of the clash.
The fight continued to the advantage of the Canadian, both on the ground and standing, but with 1 minute 45 seconds to go, the Austrian surprised Beauchemin-Pinard to throw her on her back and win by ippon.
“When I dropped it, I really thought it was an ippon, but they gave a waza-ari. Then I looked at how much time was left to manage until the end if I didn’t score again. It played in my head, ”acknowledged the athlete.
“If I had continued with the same intensity until the end, I would have won. It’s a careless mistake and in my head, I thought my attack was worth an ippon and it distracted me. »
The 27-year-old judoka obtains the same ranking as at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam, played last February, except that that of Turkey is more satisfactory in her eyes, because the competition was higher there.
“It’s clear that I could have finished on the podium, but I see an improvement after each competition. The important thing is to be at my best at the World Championships. »
In the semi-finals, she bowed out against the Briton and future winner of the tournament, Lucy Renshall, also victorious at the Grands Prix in Abu Dhabi and Baku, last November. The Quebecer did not understand at the time why the referee awarded her a third penalty 1 minute 18 seconds into overtime, which automatically gave her opponent the victory.
“I had just made three good attacks and then she pushed me off the mat. I was not happy to receive this penalty and in my opinion, it was rather her who should have been penalized. I was speechless! But hey, my first two penalties were deserved and I left the fight to the referee instead of taking the lead. »
Earlier in the day, the athlete from Saint-Hubert had won, in order, the Hungarian Hedvig Karakas and the Czech Renata Zachova. Her quarter-final clash against Brazil’s Keteyn Quadros was pushed back to almost 5 minutes of overtime when the representative of the maple leaf managed to immobilize her on the ground.
Recall that Ontario’s Jessica Klimkait won the under 57 kg table on Friday.
Brief outings for men
Beauchemin-Pinard’s male teammates had a shorter outing. In the -73 kg draw, Montrealers Antoine Bouchard and Arthur Margelidon both went 1-1 and did not earn a ranking.
In the under 81 kg category, Almatois François Drapeau-Gauthier also ended his day with a victory and a defeat.
As for Étienne Briand, from Sept-Îles, he lost his only fight when he was opposed to the Brazilian and eventual gold medalist, Guiherme Schmidt.
Sunday, it will be the turn of Louis Krieber-Gagnon (-90 kg), Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) and Shady Elnahas (-100 kg) to compete against the world elite.
