Only the athletes Giulia Pereira (up to 48 kg of the J2 class, for low vision) and Alana Maldonado (J2 up to 70 kg) did not fight, since they were the only ones registered in their respective categories, but they also received gold. medals.
In all, 45 athletes from six countries participated – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba and the United States. Three countries (Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) had problems with documentation and did not send representatives.
With the reduced number of judokas, six categories had only two fighters, who competed in a best-of-three combat system. This is what happened to Erika Zoaga (over 70 kg in the J1 category, for the totally blind), for example, who did not have to fight for the third time, since she beat the American Christella Garcia, in two matches.
Other fighters experienced the same situation: Rosi Andrade (J1 up to 48 kg), who beat Argentinian Rocio Ledesma; and the carioca Brenda Freitas (J1 up to 70 kg), who won the Cuban Aragna Hechevaria.
Wilians Araújo of Paraiba (J1 over 90 kg), like his compatriots, only needed two fights to clinch gold. On occasion, he surpassed Argentinian Cristian Alderete. Wilians ended the year on an incredible note: gold in all seven tournaments he contested and won 23 of 24 bouts by ippon.
“It was a magical year in my life, the best of my sporting career. It is the fruit of teamwork, of the whole of the Benjamin Constant Institute and the CBDV [Confederação Brasileira de Desportos de Deficientes Visuais]. Now it’s up to you to keep training hard to continue next year at the same pace,” the heavyweight said.
Other gold medal athletes were in brackets with three to five opponents. In this case, the challenge formula is all against all. Whoever won the most won first place.
Thiego Marques (J2 up to 60kg), from Pará, who had never won a gold medal for the adult team, broke the spell by overtaking local athlete Justin Karn and Chileans Johann Bustos and Yabran Alonso.
The Canadian Pan Am was the second IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation) event to score points in the world rankings. This will be the ranking that will define the qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Of the 14 summoned by the technical committee of senseis Alexandre Garcia and Jaime Bragança for the event, seven arrived in Edmonton at the top of their categories. Everyone confirmed their favoritism and won – except for Alana Maldonado, who did not fight for lack of an opponent.
Besides Rosi, Brenda, Thiego and Wilians, the other world bests who took the top step of the podium this Sunday were: Rebeca Silva (J2 above 70 kg) and Arthur Silva (J1 up to 90 kg). Lúcia Araújo (J2 up to 57 kg) and Marcelo Casanova (J2 up to 90 kg), who also won gold, are expected to move up positions in their weights.
The other podiums this Sunday came with the silver of Elielton Oliveira (J1 up to 60 kg) and the bronzes of Larissa Silva (J1 up to 57 kg) and Harlley Arruda (J1 up to 73 kg).
In addition to being Pan champions in Canada, the Brazilian Paralympic judo team placed fourth at the 2022 Baku World Cup and finished first in all three stages of the IBSA Grand Prix: in Sao Paulo, Nursultan (Kazakhstan) It is Antalya (Turkey).
After the holidays, the sport’s first major competition in 2024 will be the German Open, in Heidelberg, in February. It should be remembered that next season also reserves the IBSA World Games, in Birmingham (ING), in August, and the Parapan Am Games, in Santiago (CHI) in November.
*With information from the Brazilian Confederation of Sports for the Visually Impaired (CBDV).
Sponsorship
Judo is a modality sponsored by Loterias Caixa.
Communications Office of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (imp@cpb.org.br)
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