The past three days have brought action from Ulaanbaatar, with the Mongolian Grand Prix. The Buyant Ukhaa Sport Complex was host to six British athletes.
Kelly EDWARDS was to fire up the stage on day one in the -52kg category, fighting her way into the medal zone. The bronze medal was taken by Bundmaa MUNKHBAATAR (MGL) which saw Edwards finish with a fifth place. The second day of the competition brought an early exit for the British competitors, however, the third and final day saw exciting action and success for Ben Fletcher and Gemma Gibbons.
Ben FLETCHER took the lead at the early stage in the -100kg category with a winning contest against Aruin-Erdene BATBAYAR (MGL), putting Fletcher immediately into the quarter-finals where he soon shined his ne-waza skills to overcome Kai HU (CHN). A tight match up was on display in the semi-finals with Martin PACEK (SWE), however towards the end of the contest the Swedish fighter scored for waza-ari to head onto the final stage.
The bronze medal match was against Janchivdorj BUNDDORJ (MGL). The British fighter dominated the bronze contest by putting Bunddorj under pressure who then received two penalties. Towards the very end of the contest, Fletcher guaranteed the podium spot for himself with ippon score against his Mongolian opponent. The third place earned not only his first Grand Prix medal but also 120 Olympic qualification points for Flecther.
London Olympic silver medallist, Gemma GIBBONS was on form in the -78kg category and defeated all her opponents by ippon. One by one, first, Rika TAKAYAMA (JPN) then Baku Grand Slam Silver medalist, Akari OGATA (JPN) fell to Gibbons. In the final, African Championships silver medalist and Pan-American Open silver medalist, Myriam Sarah MAZOUZ (GAB) was defeated by Gibbons, who scored two waza-ari. The last time Gibbons had the joy of standing on top of a Grand Prix podium was two years ago at the Dusseldorf Grand Prix. Today’s victory gained an additional 300 qualification points for the Scottish based fighter.
The next stop towards Rio will be the Tyumen Grand Slam in two weeks time. However, before that you can see our top athletes on stage at The SSE Arena during the 2015 British Open!
