‘-63kg Olympic Selection hots up as Renshall finishes 5th on second day of the Tbilisi Grand Slam

Olympic qualification in the -63kg category took another turn today as Lucy Renshall finished 5^th on day two of the Tbilisi Grand Slam.

The -63kg category is the most closely contested within British Judo with three fighters competing for one spot to represent Team GB at the Olympic Games in Tokyo later this summer.

Currently Amy Livesey is the highest ranked British fighter, closely followed by Renshall and Lubjana Piovesana sits just outside the automatic qualification places.

The selection criteria states that whoever is ranked the highest following the World Championships later this year will compete in Tokyo.

Following an opening round bye, Renshall defeated Seyma Ozerler (TUR) and Jing Tang (CHN) to book her place in the quarter-finals to face Geke Van Den Berg (NED). Unfortunately, Renshall amassed three shidos and was defeated but was progressed to the Repechage to fight for a place in the bronze medal match.

In the Repechage Renshall defeated Laura Fazliu (KOS) with some great newaza to progress to the bronze medal match to face Daria Davydova (RUS).

There was nothing between the two fighters throughout the bronze medal contest and as the fight entered Golden Score Renshall was countered by Davydova and thrown for waza-ari.

Other Brits in action on day 2:

In the opening round of the -70 kg competition, Gemma Howell defeated Karene Agono-Wora (GAB) but was disqualified in her Round 2 contest against Asma Alrebai (BRN) for stepping across her opponents supporting leg.

Lachlan Moorhead was defeated by London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Antoine Valois-Fortier (CAN) in the third round of the -81kg competition. Moorhead had a long wait until his first contest after an opening round bye and his second-round opponent Dilan Rechister (ISR) failing to show for the contest.

In the -63kg competition Amy Livesey was defeated in her Round 2 contest against Cristina Cabana Perez (ESP) after being awarded a 3^rd shido in Golden Score.

In the -73kg competition Eric Ham defeated Tornike Gvitchiani (GEO) in the opening round, but was eliminated from the competition following Round 2 defeat to Marko Gusic (MNE). There was slight controversy over the winning score as Gusic appeared to score a waza-ari after the referee had called matte. Following this decision Ham was by far the most dominant fighter but couldn’t find a winning score to see him progress to the next round.

Also in the -73kg competition, Daniel Powell was disqualified in his Round 2 match against 8x Panamerican medallist Magdiel Estrada (CUB), following an opening round bye. Powell was initially awarded a waza-ari score only to have it removed and be disqualified for a head dive.

Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70kg) was defeated by Doha Masters silver medallist Madina Taimazova (RUS) in the opening round, who later progressed to the final.

Tomorrow is the final day’s action in Tbilisi which sees 6 British Judo fighters compete. In the -90kg category Max Stewart and Jamal Petgrave are in action. Emma Reid and Shelley Ludford compete in the -78kg category whilst Harry Lovell-Hewitt (-100kg) and Sarah Adlington (+78kg) are also in action.

The Action gets underway at 7:30am (GMT) on Sunday with Final Block scheduled to commence at 14:00 (GMT).

British Judo will bring you a recap of how all your British fighters perform each day and you can follow the action on the British Judo social media channels. You can also watch the action live on the British Judo homepage.