In his last appearance at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in 2021, Shady El Nahas won the first gold medal of his career at this level. On Sunday, he returned to the podium by winning a bronze medal in the under 100 kg in the Georgian capital.
The Canadian knew his opponent well from the last fight, the Kazakh Nurlykhan Sharkhan. He had recently trained with him and seen his defensive style. El Nahas factored this into his strategy and took advantage of it.
“He got penalties because he didn’t want to engage with me, that was part of the game plan,” El Nahas admitted.
After just over two minutes, the official effectively penalized Sharkhan for a third time and ended the fight, leading the Ontarian to the third step of the podium.
“If I had the chance to throw him, I would have done it, but I knew it was going to be difficult given his defense,” added the man who now has nine Grand Slam medals.
Earlier on Sunday, he emerged victorious from his opening two duels, when he defeated Croatian Zlatko Kumric and Frenchman Alexandre Iddir by ippon to advance to the semi-finals.
El Nahas then had an appointment with Gonchigsuren Batkhuyag of Mongolia. The latter scored two waza-ari early in the clash and advanced to the final.
“My first two fights went perfectly, but in the semis it was very disappointing. The guy just wanted to wait to counter me and he got me. I think it’s a fight I could have won,” El Nahas said afterwards.
If he had reached the grand final, the Canadian would have faced Georgian Illia Sulamanidze, the same opponent he had beaten at this Grand Slam in 2021.
“Would have been cool to do that again.” In Paris, I also lost in the semi-finals, so I will have to find a solution not to think too much, win and go to the final. »
Sulamanidze won gold against Batkhuyag in the grand final. The other bronze medal went to Brazilian Rafael Buzacarini.
In -90 kg, Louis Krieber Gagnon finished the tournament with a win and a loss. The Quebecer began his career by winning thanks to a waza-ari against Anarbek Ishenbaev, from Kyrgyzstan, then lost against the Olympic champion of the Tokyo Games, Georgian Lasha Bekauri.
A little later, Bekauri got the better of his compatriot Luka Maisuradze in the grand final. Cuban Ivan Felipe Silva Morales and Japanese Goki Tajima both won bronze medals.
Podiums in under 81 kg and over 100 kg
Several Canadian judokas under the age of 21 were also in action on Sunday, near Bremen, Germany.
Jumber Meladze stole the show at this competition. He signed six victories in as many fights to win the gold medal at under 81 kg. To achieve this, Meladze defeated the Dutchman Joshua de Lange in the grand final.
Also under 81kg, Carter Althouse, Faniry Michael Andriamanana and Tigran Kryvytskyi failed to find their way to victory.
The other Canadian medal of the day was won by John Jr Messe A Bessong in the over 100 kg category. The Quebecer and reigning world champion among cadets has accumulated a record of three wins and one loss to climb on the third step of the podium.
Frederic De Cardaillac and Vincent Roberge-Poitras both had two wins and a loss at -66kg, while their compatriots Fahd Fithane, Troy Gallant and Norbert Peter Andras were limited to one bout.
In the under 73 kg draw, Olivier Gagnon has a record of two wins and one loss. Munkhjin Batdorj meanwhile concluded with a win and a loss. In the same weight division, Artem Neyolov, Jeremie Ngombi and Lasha Tsatsalashvili were all knocked out in their first duel on Sunday.
Daniil Kremerman was the only Canadian to reach the under 60 kg repechage, finishing with a record of three wins and two losses. Victor Dessureault won two duels and lost one.
Vincent Nepton, Denis Neyolov, Luke Thomson and Raphael Gaanan all lost their first fights in this category. Matys Rainville suffered a similar fate in the under 100kg side
In the end, three Canadians were in action at -90kg Alec Garand came out with two wins and a loss, Michael Akbashev won his first head-to-head before losing the second, then Oleksandr Kaplin was defeated in his first fight.
