Montreal, August 26, 2009 – After upsetting the defending world champion in his opening bout, Sergio Pessoa of St-Leonard, Que., was eliminated in the second round in men’s 60 kilos on Wednesday at the world judo championships.

 

Pessoa opened with a victory over Ruben Houkes of the Netherlands but lost his next bout to Hiroaki Hiraoka of Japan.  Hiraoka went on to win the silver medal while Pessoa was eliminated and not ranked.

 

‘’I’m really pleased with my opening bout,’’ said Pessoa on his victory over Houkes, also the Olympic bronze medallist.  ‘’He was a little too defensive.  I counter-attacked and threw him for an Ippon in the last minute.’’

 

‘’Against the Japanese judoka I fought well and made some attacks,’’ Pessoa said.  ‘’He used a technique that I thought I had blocked but he used his other foot to trip me up and scored a Waza-ari.  I tried to be more aggressive but he scored another Waza-ari which equalled an Ippon.  After the first Waza-ari I should have been more patient.’’

 

‘’It’s a very close field in 60 kilos,’’ continued Pessoa, who added he wasn’t bothered by an unfavourable draw.  ‘’There are many judokas who can be on the podium. I’m up there with them and I wanted to fight for a medal today.  If I can beat the top judokas early on, it’s usually a good sign for the rest of the tournament.’’

 

‘’He couldn’t have had a tougher draw,’’ said Canadian national team coach Nicolas Gill.  ‘’The Japanese judoka won everything last year except the Olympics.  He was one of the favourites in Beijing but suffered a knee injury.  His resume isn’t as sparkling as Houkes’ but he is a tougher opponent.’’

 

Pessoa was competing at his first major international tournament.  ‘’I wasn’t too stressed, just a little nervous,’’ he said.

 

Michael Popiel of Montreal, the other Canadian in action Wednesday, was not ranked in men’s 66 kilos.  He received a first round bye then lost by Shidos to Sarkhan Ahmadov of Azerbaijan.

 

‘’It was a pretty close bout,’’ said Gill.  ‘’But Michael was assessed non-combativity penalties.  He felt by trying the same thing it would eventually work but that didn’t happen.’’

 

On Thursday, Canadians in action are Joliane Melançon of Blainville, Que., in women’s 57 kilos and Nicholas Tritton of Perth, Ont., in men’s 73 kilos.

 

Canada’s other world championship entries are Amy Cotton in women’s 78 kilos and for the men Scott Edward in 100 kilos, Alexandre Émond in 90 kilos and Kalem Kachur in 81 kilos.

 

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Voice clips are available at:  www.sportcom.qc.ca/Extraitsaudio/tabid/297/Default.aspx.

 

Written by Sportcom (info@sportcom.qc.ca) for Judo Canada (www.judocanada.org)