Piovesana finishes 7th on Judo Masters debut

On day 2 of the Judo Masters in Qingdao, China, Lubjana Piovesana (-63kg) was the stand out performer finishing in 7^th place in what was her first Masters appearance.

Piovesana, the 2018 European U23 Champion, is ranked 35^th in the world with only the top 36 getting invited to compete.

In her first fight she faced current world number 7 Maylin Del Toro Carvajal (CUB) who Piovesana threw with uchi mata for a waza-ari score and progress to face world number 14 Junxia Yang (CHN), the 2016 Masters bronze medallist and 2019 Asian Champion. Piovesana threw Yang for ippon with her first attack, meaning she progressed to the quarter final to face world number 2 and 2019 World Championship silver medallist Miku Tashiro (JPN). The Japanese player won the match in Ne-waza meaning Piovesana moved to the Repechage to face Tina Trstenjak (SLO). Finding herself two shido’s down, Piovesana had to attack and was thrown for ippon in the last minute of the match.

Nevertheless, it was a great performance by Piovesana who finished the day in 7^th place. Following her performance Piovesana said: ‘I’m really happy with the day, beating the world number 7 and then the world number 14 was a paticular highlight especially when I only just managed the qualification criteria for the event. I had some really good perfomances performing throws that I have never done before. It was disappointing not to end the day on a high but losing to the World Championship silver medallist and current Olympic Champion isn’t so bad.. I’m now looking forward to next year’

Amy Livesey (-63kg) faced Anriquelis Barrios (VEN) in her first match in what was a very scrappy fight. The match went to Golden Score with Livesey progressing via O Soto Gari for a waza-ari score. In the next round Livesey face four-time World Champion Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA), unfortunately the experience of the French player saw her throw the Briton with Koshi Guruma within the first 30 seconds of the match.

Lucy Renshall (-63kg) won her first match in Golden Score against Katharina Haecker (AUS) before being defeated by Jing Tang (CHN). The match entered Golden Score with both players having amassed two shido’s each Renshall was thrown with Koshi-guruma for ippon.

Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) unfortunately amassed three shido’s in her opening match against Tina Trstenjak (SLO).

Gemma Howell (-70kg) won her first fight against the 2017 Masters Champion Maria Portela (BRA). Howell threw the Brazilian with sumi-gaeshi for waza-ari. In the next round Howell faced Maria Bernabeu (ESP), with the match nearing the 3-minute mark of Golden Score and with 2 shido’s each, Howell unfortunately was penalised further, handing the Spaniard victory in a match that could have gone either way.

Sally Conway (-70kg) was thrown for ippon on the second exchange with uchi mata against three-time Masters Champion Kim Polling (NED). Polling eventually went on to win gold.

Saturday is the final days action with two British Judoka set to compete

Natalie Powell (-78kg) has been drawn in Pool D and will face Marhinde Verkerk (NED) in the opening round. Verkerk is a former World Champion and was Masters Champion back in 2017. The pair know each other well having met on eight previous occasions, the last two times being in 2017 when Powell defeated Verkerk in the final of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and the bronze medal match at the World Championships.

Sarah Adlington (+78kg) has an opening round bye and will face the 2019 World Junior Championship silver medallist Hayun Kim in the 2^nd round.

Preliminary rounds are due to start at 02:30am on Saturday with Final Block scheduled to start at 09:00am GMT.

British Judo will bring you a recap of how all your British Judoka perform in the Preliminary rounds each morning on the British Judo social media channels. Unfortunately there is no host broadcast of the Preliminary rounds but you can watch live action of the Final Bock from 09:00am on the British Judo homepage.