Quick Exit for John Messé A Bessong

Montréal, October 5, 2024 – John Messé A Bessong was the only Canadian in action on Saturday, the final day of individual competition at the World Junior Championships in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Unfortunately for the Québécois, he was limited to only one bout, as he was eliminated in his opening match.

Photo IJF/Emanuele Di Feliciantonio
John Messé A Bessong

After receiving a first-round bye in the over-100 kg category, Messé A Bessong was pitted against Arsen Kadzaev, who had earlier defeated Britain’s Daniel Ede in his first match of the day.

The clash between Messé A Bessong and Kadzaev was so tight that neither judoka was able to break through during the four minutes of regulation time, and the bout went into overtime.

The two judokas received two penalties each in the early moments of overtime, and 39 seconds in, Messé A Bessong received a third, automatically handing the victory to his opponent.

“John is very strong, he moves well, and he can make great throws. But unfortunately, he wasn’t able to use those skills during his fight. He appeared indecisive on a few occasions, and his opponent took advantage of that. He certainly should have been in the running to win a medal today, but things just didn’t go as we had hoped,” said Canadian coach Janusz Pawlowski.

Kadzaev went on to defeat South Korea’s Dusan Baek before losing to Azerbaijan’s Kanan Nasibov in the semi-finals.

In the big final, individual neutral athlete Denis Batchaev got the better of Nasibov to clinch the category’s gold medal.

Earlier this week, Heidi Quach and Marie-Lune Turmel, who both compete in the under-48 kg weight division, were the only Canadians to win at least one match each at the Junior World Championships in Dushanbe.

Canada will not take part in Sunday’s team competition.

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Written by Sportcom for Judo Canada

For more information:

Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org