Team Canada has won its third medal at the 2024 World Judo Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On Thursday, Shady El Nahas of Toronto, Ontario won the silver medal in the men’s 100 kilogram half-heavyweight division. Due to the fact he reached the podium and fellow Canadian judoka Kyle Reyes of Brampton, Ontario did not the win the gold medal (finished fifth), El Nahas has qualified to represent Canada at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
El Nahas won all three of his Pool A matches. He beat Aaron Fara of Austria, Zelimkhan Bashaev of Bahrain and Data Arai of Japan. In the semifinals, El Nahas beat Reyes in an all-Canadian matchup, and in the process guaranteed a Canadian medal in the event. In the gold medal match, El Nahas lost to Zelym Kotosiev of Azerbaijan. The bronze medals were won by Nikoloz Sherazadishvili of Spain and Arai.
This was El Nahas’s first career medal at the World Judo Championship. On Monday, Christa Deguchi of Lethbridge, Alberta and Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ontario won silver and bronze respectively in the women’s 57 kilogram lightweight division. Klimkait won the bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. However, it appears Deguchi will now get her chance to represent Canada at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris even though it has not officially been announced by the Canadian Olympic Committee.
