durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, October 27, 2022 | | 2 P: 905-430-4300 E: info@whitby.ca whitby.ca What You Need To Know This Week in Whitby Pumpkin Disposal Pumpkins can be disposed of in your regular leaf and yard waste on the same day as your garbage collection. Be sure to have your waste at the curb by 7 a.m. for pick-up. whitby.ca/Waste No Overnight Parking Starting November 1 A reminder that overnight on-street parking is not permitted on roads from November 1 to April 15. The annual seasonal restriction is in place so snow plow operators can clear away ice and snow quickly and easily during the hours when there is less traffic and impact on drivers. Thank you for your cooperation. whitby.ca/Snow Help Keep Whitby Beautiful The Town's Anti-Litter App allows you to easily find an available location and register for a cleanup kit. When you schedule a cleanup, a free cleanup kit is provided, and staff will collect waste following the event. View Whitby's parks, trails and roads that are available for adoption or schedule a one-time community cleanup at whitby.ca/CleanUp Adopt A Pet Looking to give an animal a forever home? The Town of Whitby provides animal care, sheltering and adoption services through the Whitby Animal Services Centre. See which animals are up for adoption at whitby.ca/PetAdoption Election Results and Signage The results of Whitby's municipal election are now available at whitby.ca/Vote Candidates are reminded that all election signage must be removed by end of day Monday, October 31, 2022. Thank you to all who helped to support the election process. Just days after returning from the judo world championship with a bronze medal, the good news keeps coming for Jessica Klimkait of Whitby. The International Judo Federation released its new rankings following the championship, held last week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Klimkait has been ranked No. 1 in the world in the under-57 kg (125-pound) category. Klimkait, 25, won bronze in that weight category at the world championship. Going into the championship, she had been the defending world champion in her weight category. In the bronze-medal match, she faced top-ranked Timna Nelson Levy of Israel in the match, held on Saturday, Oct. 8. With 30 second left in the match, Klimkait was able to score a second waza-ari for the win. A waza-ari is the second highest score a fighter can achieve in judo. It involves a fighter being able to throw an opponent with control and accuracy. "I knew my opponent really well and I knew I had to follow my game plan to the letter. To counter her strengths, I had to dictate the pace of the fight, using my own judo and my holds. That worked well from the very beginning, so I set my own pace. In the end, my holds made the difference for the win," Klimkait said in a statement. It wasn't an easy day for Klimkait to get to the bronze-medal match. In the quarter-finals, she lost to South Korea's Mimi Huh when the officials hit her with a third shido. A shido is a penalty handed out for minor infractions. "Of course it's frustrating," Klimkait said. "No one wants to lose that way. But it's been like that for the whole tournament, and I wasn't able to find my pace during that fight. The officials gave out a lot of penalties, and I just didn't do enough to win it." The defeat sent her into the repechage, where she ousted Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia by ippon. An ippon is the highest ranking scoring method and is awarded for a throw, pin, choke or jointlock. "Things didn't start out the way I would have liked, but my quarter-final loss gave me a chance to clear my head, dig a little deeper, and find motivation to make it to the podium," Klimkait said. "My main goal is to make it to the top of the podium, and I've got some things to work on. My objective is always to keep improving, and this competition will allow me to do exactly that." The past two years have been eventful for Klimkait. Last year, she won her weight category at the world championships and then picked up a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Brian Kalsen, the president of Judo Ontario, welcomed Klimkait's ranking. "The exposure is always important. I think it also inspires the next generation of the athletes, knowing that they see somebody who looks like them and does judo like them and maybe that could be me someday. I certainly believe that's one of the important parts of promoting and allowing to see athletes who have done so well," Kalsen said. Steve Sheffield, the sport director for Judo Ontario, said, "I think it shows our members it's possible. Someone has been able to do it, so it's possible for them and they can reach that high." Klimkait isn't the only judoka from Canada to be ranked No. 1. Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard of Quebec is the top ranked fighter in the under-63 kg (138-pound) category. BRONZE FOR WHITBY'S KLIMKAIT AT JUDO WORLDS COMMUNITY Jessica Klimkait, seen here with the bronze medal she won at the Tokyo Olympics in the women's under 57-kg division in judo, picked up another bronze at the recent Judo World Championships. The Whitby native began training in judo at the Ajax Budokan Judo Club when she was four. Jason Liebregts/Metroland