Canadian Kyle Reyes takes sensational gold medal

Canadian Kyle Reyes was the surprising winner of the gold medal for men U100kg and claimed the first ever Junior world title for his nation. Reyes was good today, coached by Olympian Nicolas Gill who performed in the same category in his career, Reyes defeated his first four opponents. Asian junior Champion Toktogonov, World and Olympic cadet medallist Marius Piepke, Ryuko Ogawa and triple European junior medallist Toma Nikiforov.

In the final Reyes met with Lee-Hyun Kim of Korea. With 80 seconds to go Reyes struck Kim with a huge ippon in a combination of uchimata and tai-otoshi giving Canada finally the success they wanted. Canada was close at day two with Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, but now Reyes gave his coach gold and took the third place in the medal ranking. Again Canada stunts, just like at the World Cadet Championships with two world titles. The efforts of Nicolas Gill and his team seemed to pay out. Gill had lost a World Junior final himself in 1992, all the previous experiences were gathered in Reyes’s victory.

Belgian Toma Nikiforov only used half a minute to smash Kazach Aibek Sarikbayev for ippon. Nikiforov did great today and defeated his first three opponents but had too much difficulties with Kyle Reyes of Canada in the semi final.

Japanese heavyweight Ryuko Ogawa defeated Bosnian Slobodan Dorda in his last match for bronze. Dorda was the surprising winner of the pool with strong contenders Sarikbayev, Van Mierlo and Machtrou.