TIRANA, ALBANIA — Three Canadian women narrowly missed out on bronze medals at the 2023 U23 World Championships, Oct. 23-29 in Tirana, Albania. The St. Catherines, Ontario trio of Mia Friesen, Michaela Rankin and Vanessa Keefe all advanced to bronze medal matches but came up just short and had to settle for fifth.

For Friesen, she opened with a 9-4 win in the quarterfinal of the women’s 57kg weight class over Kazakhstan’s Shugyla Omirbek. She would fall 10-0 in the semifinal to Zhala Aliyeva of Azerbaijan. In the bronze medal match, Friesen faced Reena Reena of the UWW delegation, who took the win 8-2.

Rankin competed at 59kg and began with an 11-6 win over Puerto Rico’s Karoline Ortiz. Next, she bested American Nichole Moo Re 7-0. That sent her to the semifinal against Ukrainian Solomiia Vynnyk. Vynnyk would come out on top in that match 10-0. Rankin would then fall in the bronze medal match to Nikita Nikita of the UWW delegation.

Keefe opened the 68kg weight class with a 7-5 win over Varsha Varsha of the UWW delegation. She advanced to the quarterfinal where she defeated Gulnura Tashtanbekova of Kyrgyzstan 4-2. Keefe would drop the semifinal 10-0 to Independent Neutral Athlete Alina Shauchuk before losing in the bronze medal match 11-0 to Sweden’s Tindra Sjoeberg.

Women’s results

Other women’s results included: Stoney Creek, Ontario’s Serena Di Benedetto seventh at 53kg; Swift Current, Saskatchewan’s Aleah Nickel seventh at 62kg; Montreal’s Virginie Kaze Gascon ninth at 55kg; Ajax, Ontario’s Nyla Burgess ninth at 72kg; Edmonton’s Vianne Rouleau ninth at 76kg; Vineland, Ontario’s Samantha Adams 14^th at 65kg; and Brampton, Ontario’s Kelyn Young 16^th at 50kg.

Men’s results

The top finish on the men’s side belonged to Mississauga, Ontario’s Karanveer Mahil who was 12^th at 125kg; Mississauga’s Patrik Leder was 16^th at 74kg; Edmonton’s Aiden Stevenson was 17^th at 97kg; St. Catharines’ Garrette Saunders was 17^th at 61kg; Winnipeg’s Connor Church was 19^th at 79kg; Montreal’s  Jason Luneau was 20^th at 65kg; Winnipeg’s Sam Pereira was 20^th at 92kg; Montreal’s Stone Lewis was 21^st at 70kg; and Surrey, British Columbia’s Owen Martin was 21^st at 86kg.

For complete tournament information, including brackets and match video archive visit the tournament website at: https://uww.org/event/u23-world-championships/results