Beauchemin-Pinard defeats Howell in Commonwealth final U63kg

After a fierce fight lasting nearly seven minutes, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard executed a successful arm lock and secured her victory and a gold medal U63kg class on the second day of at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Beauchemin-Pinard knew she was far from the favourite judoka when she stepped onto the tatami against host England’s Gemma Howell, yet her plan was clear. "I’d already faced her before, and at that time, we had a close bout and I lost. So, after that I prepared myself for a long match. In order to control positioning it was a lot of hand-to-hand, and I feel that I did really well in terms of that," explained a pleased Beauchemin-Pinard after her triumph against Howell.

Gemma Howell went on to win her semi-final contest by making Haecker (AUS) submit with a strangle. The -63kg final would see Canada’s Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard and England’s Gemma Howell fight for Gold. It turned out in a close fight and with two shidos each, the Canadian prevailed with an armlock 3 minutes into golden score and snatched the Gold.

Beauchemin-Pinard: "Because it was a long fight, at one point, I began to doubt if I was actually going to win it. I went one sequence at a time, determined to keep coming back stronger."

The 28 year-old athlete knew that Antoine Valois-Fortier was sitting in the coach's chair – a former teammate, and someone she knew she could count on. "Antoine knows my judo style well, we’ve traveled together, and that makes it the perfect context to push myself further," concluded the judoka.

Judo gold for England's Daniel Powell

England’s Dan Powell had a chance to take Commonwealth Gold in the final of the U73kg category which he clinched with an ippon score defeating Faye Njie (GAM).

England won two Judo golds at Coventry Arena as home favourite Daniel Powell and Lachlan Moorhead delighted the patriotic crowd.

Powell celebrated victory in the men's -73kg as he won by ippon against The Gambia's Faye Njie in the second of four gold medals contested on Tuesday.

Powell, 24, who won the European Open in Sarajevo and also became British champion last year, added the Commonwealth title to his collection as Amir Daniel Bin Abdul Majeed of Malaysia and Australia's Jake Bensted clinched the bronze medals.

The Walsall-born champion was feeling the love from the crowd, and said: "It feels amazing. It definitely feels good to win it in Birmingham as it’s my home town and it makes it more special.

"It’s been the best crowd that I’ve ever fought in front of. I think they might’ve known I was local.

"It was definitely my hardest fight of the day. I felt that it started well, but Njie kind of came back into it. But like I said, having the crowd behind me in the Golden Score was part of the reason why I won that fight.”

Lachlan Moorhead takes gold for England

For the U81kg category, we had Lachlan Moorhead from England fighting for Gold. Moorhead was up against Francois Gauthier Drapeau (CAN). Two waza-aris with drop tai-toshi for Moorhead secured him the Gold and his first Commonwealth Games medal.

Two Canadian athletes reached the finals. François Gauthier-Drapeau fought for gold against England’s Lachlan Moorhead, while fellow Canuck and teammate Mohab ElNahas was on a mission for bronze.

After a solid bout, François Gauthier Drapeau finally had to admit defeat against Moorhead, dealt by way of a combination of two waza-ari good for an ippon. The Briton hit the Canadian with the same move twice.

"We had planned to counter that technique, but on the other side of the body. Since Moorhead executed the move on the opposite side than what we were expecting, for my defensive move, I had to put myself in the wolf’s jaws. After the first waza-ari, I could tell I was losing, so I went after my opponent more aggressively, trying out a move so I wouldn’t lose 1-0. But, he succeeded a second time," analyzed the disappointed silver medalist.

In the women's U70kg contest, Australian Olympian Aoife Coughlan also won by ippon as she forced Jamaica's Ebony Drysdale Daley to settle for silver.

England's Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown and Kelly Petersen-Pollard both claimed the bronze medals.