Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario won the bronze medal at the 2019 Qingdao Masters on Thursday. While competing in the women’s 57 kilogram division, Klimkait won a bronze medal in a Masters Judo event for the second straight year as she finished third in Guangzhou, China on 2018.
Klimkait competed in Pool B. She defeated Sabrina Filzmoser of Austria and Jovana Rogic of Serbia before losing to Chen-Ling Lien of Chinese Taipei.
In the Repechage, Klimkait beat Sarah Leonie Cysique of France and Tsukasa Yoshida of Japan to win the bronze medal. Jin A Kim of North Korea won the gold medal, Momo Tamaoki of Japan won the silver medal and Telma Monteiro of Portugal won the other bronze medal.
Klimkait’s greatest achievement in 2019 was winning the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia in July. It is remarkable that Canada’s two best female judokas are in the same division. Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta is ranked first in the world in the women’s 57 kilogram division and Klimkait is third. In Qingdao, Deguchi lost in the second round to Kim.
Deguchi was able to secure her world number one ranking after winning the gold medal in the lightweight division at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo. The bronze medal for Klimkait in Qingdao will give her confidence as she prepares for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
