Paris Olympic Qualification underway at Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam

Paris Olympic qualification kicked off this weekend as the IJF World Tour made a stop in Mongolia for the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam.

6 GB judoka made the journey to the Mongolian capital city to open their Paris Olympic qualification bid.

The competition saw 5 male judoka in action who have recently been selected to represent Team England at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Daniel Powell (-73kg) and Lachlan Moorhead (-81kg) competed on day two. Powell won his opening round contest against Ylham Kemalov (TKM) but was defeated in Round Two during Golden Score by Ankhzaya Lavjargal (MGL).

Moorhead also won his opening round contest against Bekadil Shaimerdenov (KAZ) before facing Frank De Wit (NED). Moorhead went a score up early in the contest but was later caught and thrown for ippon. De Wit later went on to claim bronze.

The third and final day saw Jamal Petgrave (-90kg), Rhys Thompson (-100kg) and Harry Lovell-Hewitt (-100kg) in action.

Petgrave defeated Puntsagtseren Ganbaatar (MGL) during Golden Score in the opening round contest but was defeated in Round 2 by Erlan Sherov (KGZ).

Lovell-Hewitt defeated Nyamkhuu Darikhuu (MGL) after pinning the home nation judoka for 20-seconds before suffering defeat to Michael Korrel (NED) in Round Two. Korrel later went on to win the Pool and qualify for the bronze medal contest.

Thompson had an opening-round bye before facing 3x Grand Slam gold medallist, Kentaro Iida (JPN). Iida registered a waza-ari score in the final 90-seconds of the contest which was enough to see him progress to the next round.

On the opening day, Lele Nairne was disqualified from her first-round competition against 4^th seed Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo (MGL) for attempting to throw against a straight arm.

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