In her first appearance at the Commonwealth Games, Christa Deguchi won gold in the -57 kg category. She capped off her clear run with an ippon in overtime against Britain’s Acelya Toprak, who was battling in front of her fans.
Posted at 6:22 p.m.
Montréal, 1is August 2022 – In her first appearance at the Commonwealth Games, Christa Deguchi won gold in the -57 kg category. She capped off her clear run with an ippon in overtime against Britain’s Acelya Toprak, who was battling in front of her fans.
“I am very happy to have won this gold medal as a Canadian. It’s my first medal at the Games, I’m very proud of myself! expressed Christa Deguchi when she left the tatami mats.
From the start of the final, the 26-year-old athlete set his pace. The author of a spectacular point halfway through the confrontation believed that she had taken the lead in the fight, but she had to start from scratch when the officials erased it from the board.
Deguchi was undeterred, however, and eventually scored again with an ippon after just over a minute of extra time to clinch the win.
“A great medal for Christa, who was having her first major Games experience. This medal is part of his preparation for the World Championships in October and towards the 2024 Games! “, described his trainer, Antoine Valois-Fortier.
This gold medal is the first for Canada in judo at the Commonwealth Games since those of Nicolas Gill and Carolyne Lepage, in 2002, also disputed in England, but on the side of Manchester. The maple leaf has only participated in four editions of the Commonwealth Games in judo, in 1990, 2002, 2014 and currently in 2022.
Kelly Deguchi would have liked to do better
Christa’s little sister, Kelly Deguchi, was also in action in the -52kg category and she also made it to the grand final, where she had a date with Tinka Easton of Australia.
“I’m happy with my silver medal, but disappointed with my fight in the final. I have to go back to working on my hand positioning and my foot movements to be ready for the next tournament”, analyzed the 23-year-old judoka, visibly dissatisfied.
During this final meeting, the attacks were difficult to concretize on both sides. Kelly Deguchi almost gave in in the second half of the fight, managing to turn around narrowly to save the day. She then took over Easton at the end of the regulation 4 minutes, controlling the guard and multiplying the attacks. It was finally in overtime that the Canadian was surprised when her opponent managed a waza-ari good for the gold medal.
Two faultless starts
Before reaching their respective grand final, the Deguchi sisters had swept away everything in their path at the start of the tournament. Christa, having received a bye in the first round, took 57 seconds to land an ippon on her first opponent, Suchita Tarival of India. In the semi-finals, it was with a waza-ari that she defeated the Briton Lele Nairne.
On Kelly’s side, she reached the final following two quick fights won by ippon, first against Scotland’s Kirsty Marsh, then at the expense of Marie Celine Baba Matia of Cameroon. Note that she had also obtained a pass from the start.
The Commonwealth Games judo tournament continues on Tuesday as Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (-63 kg) and François Gauthier-Drapeau (-81 kg) will represent Canada on the tatami mats in Birmingham.
