Bronze medal for Davis after day of nail-biting judo in Germany

It was a day of dramatic contests today for the British judoka in Germany for the Dusseldorf Grand Prix. With five judoka in action across the -48kg, -57kg, -60kg and -66kg categories and valuable Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualification points on offer, it was Nekoda Davis who secured the best finish of the day with a bronze medal.

Davis started the day with a strong performance against fourth seed Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard of Canada. One shido (penalty) was the difference between the two as Davis progressed to the second round where she came up against Serbian Jovana Rogic. The pair had faced each other several times before, with Rogic coming out on top in their most recent encounter.

This time, Davis had the momentum and threw Rogic for ippon with less than a minute on the clock, setting up a quarter-final match-up against Helene Receveaux of France. The highly ranked French judoka overcame Davis with a throw for ippon, which saw Davis fight for a place in the bronze medal contest against Yadinys Amaris (COL).

With a yuko lead over Davis, the contest seemed wrapped up for the Columbian fighter, but with seconds left to go, Davis pulled out a throw worthy of a waza-ari score to take the win and the place in the bronze medal contest. The bronze medal contest was a re-match of the 2015 Jeju Grand Prix final which saw 2016 Paris Grand Slam winner, Jan-Di Kim (KOR) defeat Davis for gold.

This time round, Davis dominated the contest and scored a yuko and waza-ari with two attacks for the win and bronze medal. Speaking on the day’s performance, Davis said: “I felt strong today and picked myself up well after Paris, beating the Korean that won it two weeks ago. Today I stood on the rostrum with my hero Matsumoto and I want to do that again in Rio!”

Lead Performance Coach, Kate Howey MBE added: “Nekoda has had a brilliant day beating the world number eight and the Korean that won Paris [Grand Slam] two weeks ago who is also number three in the world. She has proved that she belongs at this level even at a young age and gained more valuable points towards Rio [Olympic qualification].”

Davis was not the only British judoka to have fans on the edge of their seat today, Colin Oates (-66kg) produced a nail-biter of a performance when he took his second round contest win in the final second.

With two shidos against his name Oates needed a score when, in a last-gasp effort, Oates threw for yuko and took the win over Gomboc. With a taste for comebacks, Oates took his third round contest with a throw for ippon after being a waza-ari score down against Sergiu Oleinic of Portugal.

After losing out in the quarter-finals and repechage contest, Oates was left to settle for a 7th place. Oates said: “Although disappointed with a 7th place finish, considering how badly I fought in Paris two weeks ago, I’m pleased that I started to deliver some of my own judo and, of course, get some wins under my belt.”

Also in the -66kg category, Nathon Burns had a strong start to the day with a win by two shidos over Armenian fighter, Ferdinand Karapetian. Unfortunately, Burns could not overcome his next opponent, strong Japanese judoka, Kengo Takaichi, who scored a yuko before taking the contest by ippon.

Ashley Mckenzie (-60kg) and Kimberley Renicks (-48kg) were also in action today, but unable to progress through the first rounds.

 Tomorrow will see Patrick Dawson (-73kg), Owen Livesey (-81kg), Alice Schlesinger (-63kg), Sally Conway (-70kg) and Megan Fletcher (-70kg) take to the tatami in Germany. Follow live with @BritishJudo on twitter and watch live and free at ippon.tv Tweet your support to the team with #WeAreGBJudo