Canadian judoka Kyle Reyes topped the rostrum in the lads’s under-100 kilogram division at the Grand Slam occasion in Abu Dhabi on Sunday for the primary Grand Slam gold medal of his profession.
The 29-year-old from Toronto gained all 5 of his matches, capping off his massive weekend with a win over Spain’s Nikoloz Sherazadishvili in the ultimate.
He opened the match by defeating Columbia’s Franciso Balanta by ippon in the second spherical after a first-round bye. Reyes adopted it up with wins over Otabek Turaboev of Uzbekistan and Nurlykhan Sharkhan of Kazakhstan to succeed in the semifinals, the place he defeated Olympic silver medallist Asley González of Romania by waza-ari.
In the ultimate, Sherazadishvili tried to impose his uchi-mata and the Canadian tried to counteract it. The Spaniard was disqualified on his final try after the referees deemed him responsible of diving.
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It’s the fourth Grand Slam podium end for Reyes, who additionally has three silver medals. Reyes gained his first world championship medal earlier this month with silver at judo worlds in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
El-Nahas has gained eight Grand Slam medals, with one gold, two silver and 5 bronze.
Canada’s François Gauthier-Drapeau completed fifth in the lads’s -81kg competitors.
The Canadian judokas will subsequent head to Azerbaijan for the following Grand Slam, working from Nov. 4-6.