Giles Claims Silver in Antalya

On the opening day of the Antalya Grand Slam, Chelsie Giles (Coventry Judo Club; Simon Moss) claimed a silver medal to add to the gold medals she won at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam and Portugal Grand Prix earlier this year.

Giles lived up to her world number one ranking as she comfortably progressed through her opening three contests to win her pool and progress to the semi-finals. Following an opening round bye, Giles defeated Ariane Toro Soler (ESP) and Gultaj Mammadaliyeva (AZE) courtesy of her trademark ne-waza before a quarter-final victory against Sofia Asvesta (CYP).

Giles started the semi-final in relentless fashion, launching attack after attack onto her opponent, Sita Kadamboeva (UZB). Giles took her opponent to ground early in the contest and came close to registering a score. In the following exchange, Kadamboeva was disqualified for a head dive, progressing Giles to the final to face a familiar opponent, Olympic silver medallist Amandine Buchard (FRA).

The final was another tense affair, just like the previous five encounters between the pair, and with the contest looking certain to head to Golden Score, Buchard registered a waza-ari score moments before the buzzer sounded to end the 4-minute contest.

The score was enough to see Buchard win the gold, meaning Giles had to settle for silver, but does maintain her 100% record of making the final at her last 5 competitions.

Neil Macdonald (SJCA; Stephen Somerville) defeated Ryan Conceicao (BRA) in a round two Golden Score contest following an opening round bye. Conceicao picked up a third shido to see Macdonald progress. In round three, Macdonald was defeated by 2022 Antalya Grand Slam bronze medallist Dilshodbek Baratov (UZB) in the opening exchanges after being thrown for ippon score.

Alex Short (Edinburgh JC; Billy Cusack) defeated Shugen Nakano (PHI) in the opening round. Short registered a waza-ari after the opening minute of the contest before securing victory with an arm lock for ippon score in the closing seconds of the fight. Short’s involvement in the competition ended in round two when he picked up a third shido in Golden Score in his contest against Radu Izvoreanu (MDA).

Also competeing in the -66kg category, Charlie Young (Ryecroft Judokwai; Paul Young) was defeated by a single waza-ari score in his opening round contest against Abdullah Berkin Ozcan (TUR).

Nekoda Smythe-Davis (Ealing Judo Club; Jo Crowley) faced another tough opening round contest after being drawn against 5^th seed Telma Monteiro (POR) in the second round, following an opening round bye. A single waza-ari score was enough to see Monteiro progress to the third round.

In the -48kg category, Amy Platten (Redbridge JC; Guy Platten) was narrowly defeated by 5^th seed Shira Rishony (ISR) in round two, following an opening round bye. A waza-ari score enough to see Rishony progress.

Tomorrow sees five GB judoka in action, with the Preliminary Rounds starting at 6:00am (GMT).

You can watch all the action from the Antalya Grand Slam LIVE at live.ijf.org each day.

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