First round exit for McKenzie in Budapest

Ashley McKenzie lost to Ryuju Nagayama (JPN) in the opening round of the 2017 World Judo Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Monday 28 August.

McKenzie was going into the World Championships in good form having medalled at the Cancun Grand Prix in June as well finishing fifth and seventh at the Dusseldorf Grand Prix and European Championships respectively.

His first round contest saw him take on Japan’s Junior World Champion and eighth seed Ryuju Nagayama. The 21 year old had also won the Tokyo Grand Slam at the end of 2016 and added the Ekaterinburg Grand Slam title to his collection earlier this year.

McKenzie made a good start to their contest as he put pressure on Nagayama. The British judoka made the early running with a number of positive exchanges with Nagayama taking almost two minutes to put in his attack.

With little over 90 seconds to go however Nagayama took on the ground after another attack by McKenzie and was able to transition into osaekomi. The Japanese judoka was too strong and held down McKenzie for the full 20 seconds to win by ippon.

Tomorrow Kelly Edwards will be taking to the mat at -52kg. She will take on Portugal’s Joana Ramos in the first round with a potential last quarter-final against Majlinda Kelmendi (KOS) on offer

Competition starts at 1000 Local time (0900 UK time) with live coverage via live.ijf.org and @BritishJudo on Twitter. Don’t forget to tweet your support at #WeAreGBJudo