Judo World Cup – Canada’s Brief Day in Oberwart

Montreal, February 11, 2012 (Sportcom) – Canadian judokas Frazer Will and Alister Ward made only a brief appearance at the Oberwart World Cup in Austria, this Saturday, as both competitors were unable to achieve a final ranking.

Still growing into the 60kg category, Frazer Will was eliminated in his first match when Russia’s Dmitriy Kulikov dolled out an ippon in 3 minutes 29 seconds. Will dominated the combat – however without being able to score a point – and the Canadian was surprised by the single and only attack from his adversary. Kulikov’s attack send Will to the mat – and signalled his defeat. The weight division was won by the Democratic Republic of Georgia’s Betkil Shukvani, who bested the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Ilgar Mushkiyev in the final; Korea shared the third step on the podium between athletes Jin-Min Jang and Won-Jin Kim.

In the Under 66kg category, Alister Ward won his first bout against the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Tarian Karimov (currently ranked 13^th in the world) with two Waza-ari – the first in a sweep, the second in a throw. “There was a lot of action at the beginning. I followed Nicolas (Gill)’s advice and I didn’t make any mistakes,” explained Ward. “I had a good warm-up with Frazer and I also had a good hour between the weigh-in and the match to rehydrate and eat,” added the Canadian, who has remedied his in-competition weak spells with a solid warm up.

Despite early successes, Ward was eliminated in the second round, courtesy of Hungary’s Zsolt Gorjanacz – a difficult match. “He attacked me without me really feeling like I was in danger, it felt like there was nothing I could really do,” commented Ward. Canada’s flag bearer was defeated with a Waza-ari, resulting from three accumulated penalties, after having completed five minutes in regulation time.

In this weight class, France’s Pierre Duprat won the gold medal; Tomofumi Takajo of Japan earned the silver medal, and the bronze was shared between Mongolia’s Altansukh Dovdon, and Korea’s Jun-Ho Cho.

Sunday, Kalem Kachur and Antoine Valois-Fortier will take to the tatamis in Oberwart. Marylise Lévesque and Catherine Roberge will also be in action in the Budapest Judo World Cup in Hungary.

Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada