Canadian judoka Shady El Nahas took home silver in the men’s under-100 kilogram class at the Grand Slam event in Antalya, Turkey, but it wasn’t the result of a loss.
The 26-year-old from Toronto won four matches en route to Sunday’s final but was unable to compete for gold against Portugal’s Jorge Fonseca due to a rib injury.
The Canadian Olympian opened the day with wins over Louis Mai of Germany and Toma Nikiforov of Belgium before beating Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj to win his pool. He defeated Brazil’s Leonardo Gonçalves by ippon in just 18 seconds to book his spot in the final.
It’s the second straight Grand Slam silver medal for El Nahas after falling in the final at last week’s stop in Tbilisi, Georgia.
El Nahas, ranked sixth in the world, won gold at the Pan American Games last October in Santiago, Chile. He made his Olympic debut three years ago in Tokyo, where he lost to Fonseca in a bronze-medal match.
WATCH l El Nahas captures gold at Pan Am Games:
Toronto’s Shady El Nahas beat Chile’s Thomas Briceño in the men’s judo -100 kg gold medal bout at the Pan American Games in Santiago.
El Nahas will look to defend his title at the Pan American-Oceania Championships next month in Rio de Janeiro, running April 25 to 28.
The next Grand Slam stops will be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (May 3-5) and Astana, Kazakhstan (May 10-12), followed by the world championships in Abu Dhabi from May 19 to 24.
The Olympic judo tournaments in Paris run between July 27 and Aug. 3.