Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Jessica Klimkait of Whitby Ontario won her first major judo competition for 2022 at the Antalya Judo Grand Slam in Turkey on Friday. Klimkait placed first in the women’s 57 kilogram division.
Klimkait received a first round bye in Antalya, before beating Irem Korkmaz of Turkey, Nilufar Ermaganbetova of Uzbekistan, and Faiza Mokdar of France in Pool A action. Klimkait also beat Jessica Lima of Brazil in the semifinals, and Sarah Leonie Cysique of France in the gold medal match. Lima and Timna Nelson Levy of Israel shared the bronze medal.
This was in fact the second straight year that a Canadian won the gold medal in the women’s 57 kilogram weight class in Antalya. In 2021, Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta beat Klimkait in the final. This was Klimkait’s fourth career grand slam title in judo as she also won in Osaka, Japan, in 2018, Dusseldorf, Germany, in February of 2020, and Budapest, Hungary, in October of 2020.
Klimkait won the bronze medal for Canada at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Also during the 2021 calendar year, Klimkait became only the second Canadian ever to win the gold medal in the World Judo Championships. She placed first in Budapest, Hungary. The first Canadian woman to win world championship judo gold was Christa Deguchi in Tokyo, in 2019.
