Pan American Judo Open | Marc Deschênes wins gold after a quick fight

Marc Deschênes made short work of competition at the Pan American Open in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Sunday. In the over 100 kg category, Deschênes only needed a total of 220 seconds, divided into three bouts, to take the top step of the podium.

After relatively easy victories by ippon in the quarterfinals against American Philipp Horiuchi and in the semifinals against Venezuelan Luis Amezquita, the Quebecer had an appointment with Jose Nova Alcantara of the Dominican Republic in the grand final.

Deschênes’ experience was felt during this ultimate duel where he was able to immobilize his opponent on the ground to score the ippon after just over 90 seconds of combat, to the delight of the Canadian coach Sasha Mehmedovic.

“He is the veteran of the team and he clearly showed his experience on the mats today. He beat all his opponents quite easily. He followed the game plan to the letter in the final to beat his opponent. He fully deserves his gold medal,” said the coach.

On the women’s side, Coralie Godbout also did well in the under 78 kg category. The Stoneham-et-Tewksbury athlete won her first two fights to get her ticket to the grand final.

After a hard-fought duel, Godbout finally admitted defeat to the Dominican Eiraima Silvestre. Mehmedovic, however, said he was very proud of the work of his protege.

“I’m very happy with Coralie’s performance. I seriously believe that she could have beaten the Dominican in the final, but by dint of gaining experience on the international scene, she will be better prepared for this kind of situation. She gets better with every competition and that’s to her credit,” Mehmedovic said.

A third representative of the Maple Leaf stood on a podium on Sunday in Santo Domingo, Nikola Petrovic (-100kg) won one of the bronze medal clashes beating Ecuadorian Junior Angulo quite convincingly.

He previously won his first fight of the day over Dominican Ariel Lorenzo Pina before losing in the semi-finals to Cuban and eventual gold medalist Liester Cardona.

“Nikola is one of our youngest athletes and he is already excellent. He fought very well in the semi-finals and he came very close to winning. He came back strong in the final for the bronze medal. It’s very encouraging to see him succeed,” added the coach.

Also in action on Sunday, David Popovici finished in fifth place in the under 81kg chart following his loss in the bronze final to Cuba’s Maikel Mkencie London. Guillaume Gaulin settled for seventh place.

With a harvest of seven medals in two days in Santo Domingo, Sasha Mehmedovic can say mission accomplished and he hopes that his athletes will be able to continue this momentum until the Pan American Games which will be disputed in Chile this fall.

“Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance of our athletes at this Pan American Open, they picked up important points towards qualifying for the Pan American Games and on top of that, they were able to add tools to their training bag. experience,” he concluded.