Natalie Powell Claims First Grand Slam Silver Medal

Natalie Powell claimed her first Grand Slam Silver medal at the Yekaterinburg Grand Slam to cap off a great weekend for GB Judo in Russia.

Following on from Amy Livesey’s run to the bronze medal yesterday, Powell went one step further in the -78kg category and reached her first Grand Slam Gold medal contest.

Unfortunately, her Final opponent was current World Champion Mami Umeki from Japan; an opponent that she has never defeated in their previous six contests spanning back over four years.

It was a closely fought final that could have gone either way with a minute remaining on the clock. Both judoka had picked up two shidos throughout the contest and it was Umeki that untidily took Powell to the mat and managed to roll her over to secure a lower arm lock. This forced Powell to submit and settle for the silver medal.

The Welsh judoka can hold her head high however after progressing through the early rounds comfortably and professionally. After receiving a bye in the first round, she was drawn against World No. 19 Karen Stevenson from Netherlands.

Powell had defeated Stevenson only last month at the European Championships to claim her second European Championships bronze medal so the two judoka knew each other very well. It was Powell that would come out on top again after scoring a waza-ari, she made an effective transition into newaza on the mat and it was enough to score a count-out ippon victory to progress to the semi finals.

The semi-finals saw Powell produce her performance of the day as she was able to see off Anna Marie Wagner from Germany within the first minute. Wagner is just making the transition into senior competition and Powell used this to her advantage as she stalked Wagner around the mat before finishing the contest with an ippon for victory to secure her passage through to the final.

Kate Howey MBE, (Nat’s Coach over the weekend) said “Natalie fought well today and some strategies that we have been working on have come off today. This weekend was about trying new things and there were some good results and this will help her going forward.”

Nat said “I’m really pleased to pick up another Grand Slam medal. It was great to see strategies I’ve been working on in training coming through into competition. I’m now looking forward to the final preparations for the World Championships in September now!”

Elsewhere, it was a difficult day for both Ben Fletcher (-100kg) and Max Stewart (-90kg) as both judoka exited the competition at their first hurdle after receiving byes in the first round of their respective weight categories.

Stewart came up against Eduardo Bettoni (BRA) in the second round of the -90kg category. Stewart was the No.1 seed for the competition but struggled in the early stages of the contest. He tried to hook Bettoni’s ankles to score but as the clock expired, the score remained 0-0. Golden Score beckoned with both fighters looking tentative, but it was a frustrated Stewart who received a shido, which was enough to end the contest.

Fletcher’s first opponent was Austria’s Laurin Boehler in the -100kg category. Fletcher tried to unsettle his opponent early on with a number of attacks that were defended well by his opponent. As the contest wore on however, Boehler grew into the contest and looked on a number of occasions to have lifted Fletcher from his feet only to be thwarted. He was eventually able to register a single waza-ari which was enough to knock Fletcher out of the competition at the second round stage.