HERNING, Denmark – Five-time Canadian Interuniversity Sport medalist Justine Bouchard can now add another line to her impressive wrestling resume after capturing the bronze medal in the 63 kg weight class at the FILA World Championships in Denmark Thursday.

The Wetaskiwin, Alta. native, who won CIS gold in 2009, 2007, and 2006 in the same category, won a pair of national team titles with the University of Calgary Dinos in 2007 and 2009. She also added individual silver at 63 kilos in 2008 and bronze at 61 kg in 2005.

She finished the world tournament with a 4-1 record, her only loss coming to the eventual silver medalist Lubov Volosova of Russia. Following that loss, Bouchard posted a perfect 3-0 record through the repechage draw, culminating with a 2-0 shutout win over Monika Michalik of Poland.

“Each round, Justine hit a solid attack and kept adjusting right through to the finish,” wrote Canadian head coach Leigh Verling, himself an alumnus of the University of Calgary, on his blog from the Danish city of Herning. “Justine stayed active and aggressive with her hands. The Polish girl has been on the podium at the Worlds and European Championships, but not this year.

“It was a fantastic last match to a terrific day.”

Bouchard also won gold at the 2008 World University Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece and is a Canadian hopeful for the 2012 Olympics in London.

She was joined on the podium by Tonya Verbeek, who repeated her Olympic performance from Beijing with a bronze at 55 kilos. On Friday's final day of women's competition, Martine Dugrenier, the 2004 CIS outstanding wrestler while at Concordia University, grabbed the world championship title in the 67 kg weight class.

Canada finished the women's tournament in a tie for second spot in the team standings with Japan at 37 points, behind only Azerbaijan's 42-point performance.

-UC-