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Canada’s Christa Deguchi defeated France’s Sarah-Leonie Cysique on Monday to advance to the Olympic women’s judo gold-medal final in the under-57-kilogram category at Arena Champ-de-Mars.
Deguchi moved past Cysique when the fifth-ranked French judoka was called for a third shido — a slight rule violation not worthy of immediate disqualification — during “golden score,” or sudden-death overtime.
That led to Cysique’s immediate disqualification, to the disgust of the raucous home crowd.
The top-ranked Deguchi will next face South Korea’s Huh Mimi for gold. Huh, ranked No. 3 in the world, defeated Deguchi in May for gold at the world judo championships.
Deguchi bested Serbia’s Marica Perisic in the quarterfinals by golden score with a waza-ari, the second-highest score a fighter can achieve with a single move in judo.
Deguchi was the first Canadian to earn a world championship medal with bronze in 2018 before becoming Canada’s first-ever judo world champion in 2019. Deguchi won her second world title in 2023.
She was chosen to represent Canada over No. 2-ranked Jessica Klimkait of Whitby, Ont., who earned bronze at this year’s worlds and beat out Deguchi for the lone spot for the Tokyo Games in 2021, where she earned Olympic bronze.
Montreal’s Arthur Margelidon defeated Tajikistan’s Behruzi Khojazoda in the opening round in the men’s under-73-kilogram category after getting a waza-ari to win by golden score. Margelidon then topped Germany’s Igor Wandtke by golden score with an ippon to make the quarterfinals.
Margelidon fell to Azerbaijan’s Hidayat Heydarov in the quarterfinals after Heydarov scored an ippon in sudden-death overtime. Margelidon later lost his repechage match to Italy’s Manuel Lombardo by ippon.