Four British Judo Fighters in Action on Day 2 of the World Masters

The IJF World Masters resumed today with four British Judo fighters in action. Amy Livesey, Lucy Renshall, Lulu Piovesana and Gemma Howell all returned to the mat after a 10-month break from competition.

Howell, drawn in Pool A of the under 70kg competition, faced a tough opening round against two-time World Champion and Olympic bronze and silver medallist Yuri Alvear (COL).

The contest entered Golden Score with the match level at the end of the mandatory 4-minutes. Howell was able to win the contest by a single waza-ari score to progress to Round 2 to face 2019 World Junior silver medallist and 2020 European bronze medallist, Madina Taimazova (RUS).

In a closely contested match it was the Russian who was able to prevail and progress to Round 3, winning by an ippon score, after Howell initially defended against an attack but was caught and thrown. The Russian later went on to win Pool A.

Renshall had an opening round contest against Geke Van Den Berg (NED), who like Renshall, is a former European U23 Champion. With the score level at the end of the contest the match entered Golden Score with both fighters carrying two shidos each. Van Den Berg was penalised further meaning Renshall progressed to Round 2 where she faced 4x World Champion, and arguably the strongest female fighter in World Judo, Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA).

Renshall fought well taking the match the Golden Score, but the vast experience of the French fighter saw her claim victory with a waza-ari score.

Piovesana had a tough opening round contest against Sanne Vermeer (NED). Vermeer is a former Cadet and Junior World Champion and won bronze at the 2019 European Games in Minsk. With the contest finely balanced, Piovesana attempted an attack but her Dutch opponent countered, forcing the Brit to concede the contest and tap out. The Dutch fighter then went on to win the Pool.

Amy Livesey was defeated in the opening round by the current European silver medallist, Magdalena Krssakova (AUT). A single waza-ari score was enough to see the Austrian progress to Round 2 and eventually win Pool B.

Tomorrow is the final day of competition and sees two British Judo fighters in action as Natalie Powell competes in the under 78kg category, while Sarah Adlington competes in the over 78kg category.

Powell has been drawn top of Pool B and following an opening round bye, will await the victor of the opening round match between Nefeli Papadakis (USA) and Kaouthar Ouallal (ALG) in Round 2.

Adlington meanwhile will face former World Championship bronze medallist, Mi Jin Han (KOR) in her opening round match in Pool A.

Action from the Lusail Multipurpose Sports Arena starts at 7:00am (GMT) tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. You can watch all the action live on the British Judo homepage and follow the results of your British Judoka on the British Judo social media channels.