In four appearances at the Senior World Championships, Shady ElNahas had never been able to reach the podium. It’s now done. The Ontarian won the silver medal in the under 100 kg category on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Posted at 5:55 p.m.
“Honestly, I can finally breathe. I am happy and proud to finally win a medal at the World Championships, but not completely satisfied, said Shady ElNahas. I want gold and I will work with my coach Antoine (Valois-Fortier) to achieve the ultimate goal, which is gold at the Olympic Games. »
Opposed to Azeri Zelym Kotsoiev in the grand final, the Canadian had to deal with his opponent’s strong attacks from the start. Kotsoiev also managed to score a waza-ari after a minute. ElNahas redoubled his ardor to try to regain control of the fight, but his opponent, junior world champion in 2017, had the answer to everything.
The silver medalist scored four victories before facing Kotsoiev on Thursday. He got the better of the Austrian Aaron Fara, the Bahraini Zelimkhan Bashaev as well as the Japanese and eventual bronze medalist, Dota Arai.
In the semi-final, Shady ElNahas met his compatriot Kyle Reyes, in a fight which went to overtime. Reyes was penalized three times, which propelled ElNahas into the ultimate duel.
For his part, Kyle Reyes was opposed to the Spaniard Nikoloz Sherazadishvili in his fight for a bronze medal. The two judokas were nose to nose for most of this duel which went into overtime.
As was the case in the semi-final, Reyes received a third penalty and had to concede the victory to Sherazadishvili. His fifth place today represents the second best result of his career at the worlds, having finished on the second step of the podium in 2022, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
At the start of the day, Reyes defeated Croatian Zlatko Kumric, Dutchman Simeon Catharina and Dzhakhongir Madzhidov of Tajikistan in quick succession.
For her part, Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi (+78 kg) participated in her first World Championships since 2017. Unfortunately, the Quebecer was limited to a single fight in Abu Dhabi, losing from the outset to the Indian Tulika Maan.
Canada therefore leaves the United Arab Emirates with a haul of three medals at these World Championships. Two silvers, won by Shady ElNahas and Christa Deguchi, as well as one bronze, obtained by Jessica Klimkait.
