Étienne Briand had a day in two stages on Saturday, at the grand slam in Tbilisi, Georgia. After signing a convincing victory from the start, the Canadian judoka had to concede defeat against a familiar opponent in the third round of the -81 kg draw.
For the occasion, Briand made an appointment with Zelim Tckaev, an athlete he has faced many times in preparatory camps and stands out for his unique style. All gave way to a fierce rivalry that ended in victory for the representative of Azerbaijan.
I had already trained with Tckaev and I remembered that fighting him could be complicated. He was a man with very good technique, but with a timing quite strange. I knew it would be a good challengelaunched Briand, who did not prevent many Azeri attacks.
The latter showed his colors early in the match by scoring waza-possession from the first minute. He then resumed the run before closing the engagement a minute later by throwing to Briand a second time to win by ippon.
I was really surprised! I didn’t think he could knock me down to waza-ari and I had to catch-up judo. I tried to go back but couldn’t find the opening and he took advantage of a mistake to end the fight by ippon. He surprised me even moreBriand admitted at the end of the day.
Despite this defeat, maple leaf judoka will take the positives from this grand slam, starting with her victory against Frenchman Tizie Gnamien, another well -known rival.
What I did against him was very good, Briand continued. He also used to be a sparring partner and I had a lot of confidence in him that I could knock him out. He started strong with a waza-owner, but I got back by scoring before winning by ippon. I executed well and it was a very good fight for me.
South Korean Joonhwan Lee was crowned at the end of the tournament thanks to the victory over Georgian Tato Grigalashvili in the grand final. For his part, Zelim Tckaev reached one of two bronze finals, where he lost his flag against Uzbek Sharofiddin Bolaboev. Azeri Eljan Hajiyev completed the podium by beating Italy’s Tiziano Falcone in the other duel for third place.
The only Canadian representative to act in Tbilisi, Étienne Briand will take advantage of a few days off before returning to the country where another challenge awaits her, but this time the tatami is out.
I haven’t been away for almost a month, because I have a camp in Italy, so I’m going to have to get back to my research fairly fast, laughed the doctoral candidate in the economics department of UQAM. I’ve been taking advantage of this these past few weeks, because I know I’ll be busy studying this summer!
Source: Radio-Canada
