Canadian judoka Klimkait, El Nahas win gold, silver at Osaka Grand Slam
Opening 2020 Olympic qualifying tournament set for December in China
Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ont., put a damper on host Japan's attempt at a gold-medal sweep at the International Judo Federation Grand Slam event on Saturday in Osaka.
The world No. 9 Klimkait earned a victory in the women's under-57 kilogram division, delivering a morote-seoi-nage against Japan's Asian Games champion Momo Tamaoki for the gold medal at the Maruzen Intec Arena.
The 21-year-old Klimkait, who cried into the arms of her coach Sasha Mehmedovic, became the only non-Japanese champion through two days at this year's event.
Two Japanese judoka claimed the silver and bronze medals in the 57 kg bracket, while teammates grabbed titles in the women's under-63 kg and under-70 kg brackets, plus the men's under-73 kg and under-81 kg divisions.
In mid-October, Klimkait won a silver medal in the women's 57 kg class at the Cancun Grand Prix in Mexico.
She had fallen to teammate Christa Deguchi in her two previous trips to a Grand Prix final as the pair is locked in a battle to represent Canada at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
El Nahas shows well
In two weeks, Klimkait will compete at the season-ending World Judo Masters, the first Olympic qualification event, from Guangzhou in southern China.
On Sunday, Toronto's Shady El Nahas won his first medal in a senior Grand Slam, losing by ippon to 2017 world champion Aaron Wolf of Tokyo in the under-100 kg gold-medal match.
El Nahas, 20, had previously defeated opponents from Japan, Mongolia, Portugal and the Czech Republic. In the semifinal, he downed Asian Games winner Iida Kentaro of Japan, throwing for a waza-ari and pinning Kentaro to the mat for 10 seconds with a kesa-gatame.
Canada may have a gem in Elnahas, who placed fifth at the junior world championships in October.
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