Lohnes, Landry not enough to stop Quebec, Ontario
Sarah Kraus, Staff Contributor
In the final day of judo competition, fans once again filled the bleachers at the Saint Mary’s University Tower to watch the team competition, a competition unique to the Canada Games.
As exciting as it would be to have five athletes from each province flip and pin their opponents simultaneously, the team competition doesn’t exactly work that way.
Instead, athletes match up against a single opponent, based on weight classes, and fight one at a time. After all five of the athletes have finished their bouts, the team with the most wins is awarded the victory, and advances to the next round.
Nova Scotia had tough draws, with both the men and women having to play an extra game in order to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Although individual gold medallists Whitney Lohnes and Dylan Landry both won their respective bouts, their teammates could not muster up enough strength to help the home province advance, and both Nova Scotian teams were eliminated early.
In both men’s and women’s action, the favourites from Quebec easily advanced to the gold medal rounds, mostly with 5 – 0 records.
In the women’s final, however, Ontario pulled off a narrow victory over Quebec to earn gold, by a score of 3 – 2.
Judo’s sport information officer, Chris Hattie, said that in order to keep bouts competitive, the Games introduced more stringent qualifications to participate, so a few provinces were unable to field a full team. Others lost players to injury throughout the course of the Games.
This was evident in the women’s bronze medal game, as both teams only had three competitors, instead of the usual five.
New Brunswick lost Pascale Brideau earlier in the day when she injured her jaw in the quarter-finals. They faced Saskatchewan, who had the better record going into the medal round.
New Brunswick was able to squeak out a win when Martine Chenhall defeated Saskatchewan’s Haley Walz in a game that lasted the full four minutes.
A thrilled New Brunswick coach skipped along the barrier with a huge smile on her face, high-fiving spectators as she ran to congratulate her girls.
On the men’s side, Quebec showed their dominance by beating out British Columbia for the gold.
Hattie says Quebec is always expected to shine at national events because more than half of all Canada’s judo athletes reside there.
The bronze medal game featured an unlikely pair, Manitoba and New Brunswick, after the boys from the Maritimes upset Ontario in the semi-finals.
Despite their early success, New Brunswick’s Cinderella story stopped there, as Manitoba won bronze with a decisive 4 – 1 win.
Editor’s Note: Sarah Kraus is a Kings’ journalism student and multi-sport athlete. She volunteered at the Canada Games as a media representative, and was based at Saint Mary’s. She also writes for the Gazette.
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