Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario won the gold medal on Friday in the women’s 57 kilogram judo division at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam. For Klimkait, it was her second grand slam title as she also won in Osaka, Japan on November 23, 2018.
Klimkait won all five of her matches in Dusseldorf. She beat Nora Bannenberg of Germany, Nahomys Acosta Batte of Cuba and Anastasiia Konkina of Russia in Pool A action, Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the semifinals and Sarah Leonie Cysique of France in the gold medal match. Cysqiye won silver, while Dorjsuren and Konkina each won bronze. It was extremely impressive that Klimkait beat the other three medalists in the competition en route to gold.
Klimkait, who also won the gold medal at the 2019 Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia, has now won six grand slam medals (one silver and three bronze medals). She also won silver in Paris on February 9, 2019, bronze in Ekaterinburg, Russia twice (on May 20, 2017 and March 15, 2019), and in Osaka, Japan on November 22, 2019.
Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta and Klimkait are not only ranked first and second respectively in women’s judo in Canada, but the world too. There will be two more grand slam events before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The first is in Ekaterinburg from March 13-15 and the second is in Baku, Azerbaijan from May 8-10.
