Canada wins another medal, bringing home bronze at Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games
Leonarda Andric (Ottawa, Ont. / University of Ottawa) secured Canada a medal in Kyorugi competition for the second night in a row, bringing home bronze in the women’s 67kg division on Sunday at the Games.
It was a historic result for Canada in the event, marking the first time the country has ever won more than one medal in Kyorugi during the Universiade.
“Being able to make history is such an incredible moment,” said Andric.
“I’ve never been to a world event, so just being able to perform and match up with the high level and calibre of athletes, I’m very grateful for that.”
Andric, a recent graduate from the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences, recently moved up one weight class up to prepare for qualification in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The 2024 and 2025 Senior National Champion beat Giulia Maggiore of Italy 2-0 in the round of 16, and Nuray Khussainova of Kazakhstan by the same score to reach the medal round. She was defeated 2-0 by Jiana Xing of China in the semi-finals.
“I used to fight 62kg, which is a World Championships Division, and I didn’t really cut much weight for that, so naturally I’m around that size. In terms of the Olympics, I think that this is the best thing that I can do for achieving that goal,” Andric added.
“Talking with the High Performance Director and all my coaches, we all decided that the best thing to do would be to essentially fight in this division all the time, and fill in the weight and just give it a shot. So far it’s been going good, I’m really happy for that. I think it really comes down to mental work. If you can be strong mentally, and have that confidence that you can also match up physically, I think that’s the most important part.”
Earlier in the day, Josipa Kafadar (Burnaby, BC / Simon Fraser University) lost her opening round match to Sofia Garcia Marquina of Spain in the women’s 49kg division.
Kyorugi competition continues tomorrow, with matches in the 74 and 87kg divisions for men, and 62 and 73kg divisions for women.