Canada’s Reyes wins gold, El Nahas claims bronze at judo Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi | CBC Sports

By Charlie On Oct 24, 2022

Canadian judoka Kyle Reyes topped the podium in the men’s under-100 kilogram division at the Grand Slam event in Abu Dhabi on Sunday for the first Grand Slam gold medal of his career.

The 29-year-old from Toronto won all five of his matches, capping off his big weekend with a win over Spain’s Nikoloz Sherazadishvili in the final.

He opened the tournament by defeating Columbia’s Franciso Balanta by ippon in the second round after a first-round bye.

Reyes followed it up with wins over Otabek Turaboev of Uzbekistan and Nurlykhan Sharkhan of Kazakhstan to reach the semifinals, where he defeated Olympic silver medallist Asley González of Romania by waza-ari.

In the final, Sherazadishvili tried to impose his uchi-mata and the Canadian tried to counteract it. The Spaniard was disqualified on his last attempt after the referees deemed him guilty of diving.

Beautiful moment of FRIENDSHIP in the -100kg final! Reyes takes home his first World Judo Tour GOLD ????????????<br><br>Follow the action at <a href=”https://t.co/Gupw1ahon6″>https://t.co/Gupw1ahon6</a><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/JudoAbuDhabi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#JudoAbuDhabi</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Judo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Judo</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/AbuDhabi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#AbuDhabi</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/UAE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#UAE</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sport?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Sport</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Olympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Olympics</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/RoadToParis2024?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#RoadToParis2024</a> <a href=”https://t.co/lvwzddorLp”>pic.twitter.com/lvwzddorLp</a>

—@Judo

It’s the fourth Grand Slam podium finish for Reyes, who also has three silver medals. Reyes won his first world championship medal earlier this month with silver at judo worlds in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Fellow Canadian Shady El Nahas also won a medal in the same division on Sunday, finishing strong with a win over two-time Olympian Elmar Gasimov of Azerbaijan in a bronze-medal match. El Nahas rebounded after a semifinal loss to Sherazadishvili.

El-Nahas has won eight Grand Slam medals, with one gold, two silver and five bronze.

Canada’s François Gauthier-Drapeau finished fifth in the men’s -81kg competition.

The Canadian judokas will next head to Azerbaijan for the next Grand Slam, running from Nov. 4-6.

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