Nick Tritton, an Olympic-calibre judokan who trained at Ottawa’s Takahashi Dojo before moving to Montreal to continue at the National Training Centre, is working his way back to the Olympic Games.
After competing for Canada in 2008 in Beijing, Tritton won bronze Sunday at Tokyo’s Super Slam Kano Cup in Japan, considered one of the most prestigious events on the World Cup circuit.
The third-place finish was a repeat of Tritton’s performance at last year’s event, and bested his fifth-place finish last week at the World Cup in Suwon, South Korea.
Tritton becomes the only Canadian ever to earn back-to-back medals at the Kano Cup, and the first Canadian to pick up a medal of any colour since 2003, when current National Team coach Nicolas Gill became a two-time medalist.
Tritton entered the Kano Cup ranked No. 10 in the world, and his tournament record of three wins and one loss could move him further up the rankings with an eye on qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Tritton competes next week at a World Cup event in Qingdao, China.
