Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Antoine Valois-Fortier of Quebec City, Quebec, and Arthur Margelidon of Montreal, Quebec each earned medals on Saturday at the Hungary Grand Slam judo competition in Budapest on Saturday. Valois-Fortier won the silver medal in the men’s 81-kilogram final, and Margelidon won bronze in the men’s 73-kilogram division.
In the men’s 81 kilogram division, Valois-Fortier won Pool C with wins over Anri Egutidze of Portugal, Nicon Zaborosciuc of Moldova, and Ivaylo Ivanov of Bulgaria. Valois-Fortier then beat Saeid Mollaei of Mongolia in the semifinal, before losing to Vedat Albayrak of Turkey in the gold medal final. Nicolas Chilard of France and Mollaei won the bronze medals.
In the men’s 73 kilogram division, Margelidon won Pool C with wins over Evgenii Prokopuchuk of Russia, Mathias Czizsek of Austria, and Petru Pelivan of Moldova. Margelidon then lost to Nils Stump of Switzerland in the semifinal before beating Musa Mogushkov of Russia in the repechage for bronze. Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan won gold, Stump won silver, and Pelivan won the other bronze medal.
Valois-Fortier won the bronze medal in the men’s 81 kilogram division at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. This was Valois Fortier’s sixth grand slam medal of his career and the first for Margelidon.
Canada won a third medal this past weekend at the Judo Grand Slam in Budapest. Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario won the gold medal in the women’s 57 kilogram division on Friday. The medals for Margelidon and Valois-Fortier will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
