5th Place for Thompson and Petgrave at Austria Grand Prix

On the find day of the Austria Grand Prix, Jamal Petgrave (Westcroft Judo, Andy Ede) registered a 5th-place finish in the -90kg category with Rhys Thompson (Enfield Judo Club, George Hyslop) also picking up a 5th-place finish in the -100kg category

After an opening-round bye, Jamal Petgrave was up against Brazailian judoka Giovani Ferreira in his second round contest. Despite picking up two-shidos for non-combativity, Petgrave went on to win the contest after being awarded a score for ippon. Petgrave then went on to his third-round contest against Peter Zilka (SVK) where he secured a win with only seconds remaining in the regulation contest time.

Petgrave progressed into the semi-final where Axel Clerget (FRA) scuppered a place in the final for the GB judoka. In the bronze medal contest, Petgraved faced Marcelo Gomes (BRA). As the contest neared the halfway mark, both judoka battled to register a score, but it was the Brazilian who came out on top with a score for ippon for the bronze medal, meaning Petgrave finished in 5^th place.

Rhys Thompson had a great start to the competition, securing a score for ippon against Daniel Accogli in the opening 12 seconds of the first-round contest. In his second round, Thompson was awarded the win after Giorgi Chikovani (GEO) was disqualified from the competition before the halfway mark of the contest. It was a short-lived semi-final for Thompson as Leonardo Goncalves (BRA) thew for ippon at 19 seconds.

It was a bronze medal contest for Thompson against Mert Sismanlar (TUR). The Turkish judoka was handed an early shido, but this was cancelled out. Thompson put up a hard battle, but a score for ippon secured the bronze medal for Sismanlar leaving Thompson to finish in 5th place.

In the -78kg category Emma Reid (Redbridge JC; Steve Sandy) took a first-round bye to be up against Yuliia Kurchenko (UKR) in the second round. Kurchenko threw for waza-ari score before transitioning into newaza to secure victory via ippon score eliminating Reid out the competition.

In the -90kg category, Petgrave was joined by Stuart McWatt (Garioch Judo; Stuart McWatt Snr) who make his return to the tatami following injury. After an open-round bye, McWatt was to next face Bakar Erashvili (GEO). McWatt started strong but picked up a shido early on. The Scottish judoka managed to pick up a waza-ari score, but cancelled out shortly after. The contest went into golden score where the Georgian judoka threw McWatt for ippon.

World Championship representative Harry Lovell-Hewitt (Stroud JC; Richard Neale) faced Anton Savytskiy (UKR) in his opening round of the competition. Whilst the Ukraian picked up two-shidos, the contest still went into golden score where Savytskiy secured the contest win with an ippon score.

Warsaw European Open bronze medallist, Wesley Greenidge (Enfield JC; George Hyslop) faced Jelle Snippe (NED) in the opening round of the +100kg category. The contest was evenly matched to begin with, but it led to Greenidge picking up the first shido. Snippe went on to eliminate Greenidge from the competition after securing an ippon score.