Golden Giles shines in Tel Aviv

It was a golden opening day at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam as Chelsie Giles (Coventry Judo Club; Simon Moss) secured her second gold medal of the year as she topped the podium in Israel.

Following an opening-round bye, number one seed Giles defeated Ariane Toro-Soler (ESP) in the second round. Giles registered a throw for waza-ari score before transitioning into an osaekomi hold-down for a second waza-ari score to progress to the quarter-finals.

Giles won the Pool with a quarter-final victory against Aleksandra Kaleta (POL). Giles registered an ippon score in the closing 10 seconds of the contest following a great change of direction to throw her opponent.

In a closely contested semi-final battle with Olympic silver (Rio 2016) and bronze (Tokyo 2020) medallist Odette Giuffrida (ITA), Giles emerged victorious as the contest entered Golden Score. An ippon score seeing her progress to the final.

Giles faced Ana Perez-Box (ESP) in the final, a judoka she recently defeated at the Portugal Grand Prix last month.

As the contest hit the midway point, Giles capitalised on a Perez-Box attack with some great newaza that forced her opponent to tap out, handing the Brit her second career Grand Slam gold medal in the same venue as her first following her gold medal at the 2021 Tel Aviv Grand Slam.

In the -57kg category Nekoda Davis (Ealing Judo Club; Jo Crowley) and Acelya Toprak (Metro JC/ Relentless Judo; Darren Hawney/ Fitzroy Davies) both had opening-round byes.

In round two, Davis was defeated by a waza-ari score by 4^th seed Timna Nelson-Levy (ISR) whilst Toprak conceded a waza-ari score in golden score against Ivelina Ilieva (BUL).

Michael Fryer (Rush Judo; Laurie Rush) was defeated by 6^th seed Tai Flicker (ISR) after picking up a third penalty shido in Golden Score in their opening round -66kg contest.

Watch for further news from British Judo by checking out our latest news section. You can also catch up via our official social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.