Photo from left: Jeff Allen (Canada), Daviti Loriashvili (Georgia), Hladkyi Serhii ( Ukraine), Zoltan Pentek (Hungry). (Photo supplied).
The Veteran World Championships, being held in Kraków, Poland, were kind to Jeff Allen this weekend. The Canadian judoka earned his home country’s best result at the tournament, clinching the silver medal in the over-100 kg division in the 35-39 age group.
After defeating Zoltan Pentek of Hungary in the first round, Allen disposed of Georgia’s Avtandil Nukradze in the semi-final to advance to the gold medal bout. In the grand final, the 37-year-old Canadian lost his only fight of the competition to Daviti Loriashvili of Georgia. He concluded the tournament with the silver medal.
Danick Rocheleau finished fifth in the under-100 kg, 30-34 age group. He began the tournament with a win over Sovir Sharifov of Tajikistan, before losing his semi-final match to Tural Safguliyev of Azerbaijan, who went on to win gold.
Rocheleau then advanced to one of the bronze medal finals, where he bowed out to Fakhriddin Sharipov of Uzbekistan, who threw Rocheleau to the ground with 32 seconds to go in regulation time.
“Poland was a beautiful place with lots of history and old architecture. I traveled there with my wife Crystal and my son and daughter Lucas and Ayla. It was amazing to have them up in the crowd cheering me on and supporting me. Having them there pushed me to fight my hardest and make it to the Gold medal fight,” said Allen. “I’m proud to bring Canada home the only medal from the world championship and I’m looking forward to bringing a gold home next year.”
Allen was thankful to all his sponsors without whom he would not have been able to get to the world championships: Wilshire Works, Festing Toyota, Tattoo Division, Rolsotons Building center, Moose Delanies, Jeff Brown Trucking, Algonquin Outfitters, Hypervision Signs, Hopes Clover Farm and the SportLab.
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