It's Kyle Reyes's Time to Shine

We've seen this before, a situation where you have two top players in the same division, with one consistently doing better than the other only for a dramatic reversal of fortune happening. In the case of Canada, that was the case of Christa Deguchi and Jessica Klimkait in the -57kg division. The former was a World Champion and had beaten the latter every single time they had met. The natural assumption is that Deguchi would be the one going to the Tokyo Olympics.

Well, it didn't turn out that way. Klimkait won the World's that year and was subsequently sent to Tokyo where she won a medal. She hasn't looked back since. Deguchi, meanwhile, is still struggling to get back into top form.

In the men's U100kg division, there is a remarkably similar situation with Shady El Nahas and Kyle Reyes. All this while, Shady El Nahas was the more celebrated of the two.

Unlike Reyes, who until the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam this year, had not won any IJF World Tour events, El Nahas had already won two of them. And, it could be said he was generally the more famous of the two.

That's all starting to change. Buoyed by his good performance at Tashkent World Championships, Reyes solidified his position as Canada's top U100kg player by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam.

Of course, it's still to early to rule out El Nahas reclaiming the pole position at U100kg, just as it's still possible for Deguchi to come back on top again at -57kg. But the momentum right now is with Reyes, just as it is with Klimkait. And in judo, momentum can take you a long way.