GB Judo Preview: 2018 Agadir Grand Prix

A six strong GB Judo team will be in action this weekend at the Agadir Grand Prix in Morocco from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 March.

This is only the second Grand Prix of 2018 so far with Gemma Howell taking home -70kg bronze in Tunis back in January.

Kim Renicks (-48kg) and Gregg Varey (-66kg) will get things started for GB Judo on Friday.

Renicks has been close to medalling at Grand Prix level twice in the last year with fifth place finishes in Cancun and The Hague.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist takes on Aziza Chakir (MAR) in the first round.

Varey has had success in Morocco before with a bronze at the Casablanca African Open last year. However, the Bath judoka has not yet medalled at Grand Prix level.

France’s Daniel Jean will be his first round opponent.

Saturday will see a trio of British judoka in action as the middleweights look for medals and vital world ranking points.

Danny Williams (-73kg) takes on Ivory Coast judoka Rudolphe Affro in the first round. The Camberley judoka last placed at a Grand Prix in Rijeka where he finished fifth.

At -81kg Owen Livesey and Adam Hoshal will be up against some quality opposition from the start. Livesey has a couple of Grand Prix fifth places to his name, most recently at the Tbilisi Grand Prix last year.

Turkey’s Vedat Albayrak will be Livesey’s first opponent of the day with both judoka receiving byes into the second round.

Hoshal is making his Grand Prix debut and will face Adrian Gandia (PUR) in the first round.

Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg) is the sole British judoka fighting on Sunday as he looks to improve on his fifth place from the Tunis Grand Prix.

The GB fighter faces Boubker Essoufi (MAR) in the second round in Agadir.

Competition will start at 1000 UK time on each day with live coverage via live.ijf.org. Follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates throughout the weekend.