Tough first day at Hohhot Grand Prix

It proved to be a tough first day at the Hohhot Grand Prix for GB Judo with no British judoka progressing through the first round on Friday 25 May.

At -48kg, Kimberley Renicks lost out to Shira Rishony (ISR) with the Israeli judoka throwing Renicks for waza-ari in the opening minute before going straight into osaekomi.

Kelly Staddon (-48kg) took on Portugal’s Catharina Costa in the first round and it was another close contest between the two judoka.

Costa went ahead by waza-ari after two minutes and while Staddon was able to force two shidos on her opponent, the Portuguese judoka did enough to hold off the British fighter.

-52kg judoka Chelsie Giles took on Korea’s Da Sol Park and made a solid start before going behind by waza-ari. The British fighter continued to press her opponent but got taken back for ippon by Park as she went for a big attack.

Neil MacDonald (-60kg) took on Tornike Tsjakadoea (NED) with the Dutch judoka having won each of their four contests to date.

It was another tight contest with neither judoka able to get a score as the fight went into golden score. Eventually Tsjakadoea took the win as he threw MacDonald for waza-ari, 39 seconds into golden score.

Tomorrow (Saturday 26 May) will see five British judoka in action: Lubjana Piovesana (-63kg), Gemma Howell (-70kg), Dan Powell (-73kg), Owen Livesey (-81kg) and Stuart McWatt (-81kg).

The final block will be live streamed from 0900 UK time and you can follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates on any medal contest for GB Judo. You can follow the prelims via ippon.org from 0300 UK time.