Montreal, May 3, 2009 – Kelita Zupancic of Whitby, Ont., won a bronze medal in women’s 70 kilos this weekend at the British Open judo tournament in London. Zupancic defeated Gaelle Possamai of France by Ippon in the bronze medal bout. She opened the tournament with victories against Hanna Las of Poland and Lynn Mossong of Luxemburg then lost to Véronique Diebolt of France. Zupancic posted victories over Verity Stephens of Britain and Laura Derai of France in the repechage to advance to the third place match. ‘’I wasn’t expecting to win a medal,’’ said Zupancic, a medallist here two years ago. ‘’But it went well and I only made one mistake. This is good for my confidence and augurs well for next week’s tournament in Tunisia which will have a stronger field.’’ The other Canadian judokas were not ranked. In men’s 90 kilos, Guillaume Cavalli of Montreal defeated Andreas Burgmann of Britain by Ippon in his opening bout then lost the same way to Mathieu Pahud of Switzerland. In the same weight category, Robert Edward of Calgary also posted a 1-1 record defeating Jack Kelly of Britain and losing to Jelle Van Der Berg of the Netherlands. In women’s 57 kilos, Jennifer Landry of New Brunswick lost her opening bout to Szaudra Szogedi of Britain by Waza-Ari ‘’This was a good competition for Kelita,’’ said Canadian coach Marie-Hélène Chisholm. ‘’She had strong bouts and beat a solid judoka from France. It’s very encouraging for her. She beat Possamai last October but lost to her recently in Belgium.’’ ‘’Today it was more difficult. Our two guys (Cavalli and Edwards) suffered injuries and were not comfortable. Otherwise the outcome could have been different for them. Jennifer was not able to go to the repechage.’’ Zupancic, Edward and Catherine Roberge are scheduled to compete at next week’s Grand Prix in Tunisia. -30- Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

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