Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta won the gold medal on Friday in the 2024 Baku Grand Slam of Judo. It was Deguchi’s ninth grand slam title of her career. Deguchi was one of three Canadian judokas to win a medal on the weekend. Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard of Montreal, Quebec won the silver medal in the women’s 63 kilogram division, and Arthur Margelidon of Montreal won bronze in the men’s 73 kilogram division on Saturday. Beauchemin-Minard won the bronze medal in the women’s 63 kilogram division at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
Deguchi went threw Pool A undefeated. She beat Altantsetseg Batsukh of United Arab Emirates, Julia Kowalczyk of Poland, and Daria Bilodid of Ukraine. Deguchi then beat Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia in the semifinals, before beating silver medalist Nora Gjakova of Kosovo in the final. Bilodid and Liparteliani won bronze medals.
Beauchemin-Pinard also won Pool A. There she beat Sevinch Isokova of Uzbekistan, and Magdalena Krssakova of Austria before beating Szofi Ozbas of Hungary in the semifinal. Lubjana Piovesana of Austria won the gold medal, while Ozbas and Joanne Van Lieshout of the Netherlands shared the bronze medal.
Margelidon beat Heoncheol Kang of South Korea and Ibrahim Aliyev of Azerbaijan in his first two matches before losing to Abubakr Sherov of Tajikistan. Margelidon then won both Repechage matches to take bronze as he defeated Joan-Benjamin Gaba of France and Rashid Mammadaliyev of Azerbaijan. Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan won gold, Sherov won silver, and Ejder Toktay of Turkey won the other bronze medal. The medals for Margelidon, Deguchi and Beauchemin-Minard will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
