Canadian judoka Kyle Reyes of Brampton wins bronze at Tokyo Grand Slam

Canadian judokas François Gauthier-Drapeau and Kyle Reyes earned bronze medals Sunday at the Tokyo Grand Slam judo event.

Gauthier-Drapeau, form Alma, Que., finished with a bronze in the men’s under-81 kg category when opponent David Karapetyan failed to show up for the medal bout.

“My opponent hurt his shoulder in the match before ours. To be honest, I’m very glad to accept the medal, but I would have liked to fight for it,” Gauthier-Drapeau said.

“It always feels a bit weird when you take your bows and then it’s suddenly all over. There’s something missing.”

Gauthier-Drapeau opened with a decisive win over South Korea’s Woojin Choi before losing to Japan’s Sotaro Fujiwara, despite scoring the first point of the match. Fujiwara went on to won gold.

In the repechage, Gauthier-Drapeau bounced back with an overtime win over Japan’s Yoshito Hojo to advance to one of the bronze medal finals.

Reyes had a much different path to a medal.

The judoka from Brampton defeated Japan’s Koki Kumasaka for under-100 kg bronze in a match that went over 10 minutes.

Kumasaka had earlier defeated Toronto’s Shady ElNahas, who injured his hand in the second-round match.

“The bronze medal match was extremely long. It was very difficult physically, but (Kyle) controlled the fight well and ended up on the podium,” said coach Antoine Valois-Fortier. “He scored some nice points all day today by demonstrating good technique. It was a very good tournament for him.”

Reyes defeated South Korea’s Dohun Choi before losing his quarterfinal match to Japan’s Dota Arai, who also claimed a bronze medal. Reyes secured his spot in the a bronze medal match by defeating Enkhbayar Altanshagai of Mongolia in the repechage.

Gauthier-Drapeau’s returned to the under-81 kg class less than a month after he won gold in the under-90 kg category at the Continental Cup in Montreal.

“Going down in weight after several months is always pretty tough,” he said. “I hadn’t fought in the under-81 kg division since the Olympics. It’s painful, and it wasn’t easy, but I think this confirms that under-81 kg is the right weight category for me.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2024.