Renshall wins gold whilst Petersen-Pollard claims bronze at the Baku Grand Slam

Lucy Renshall continued her impressive recent form to win gold at the Baku Grand Slam whilst Kelly Petersen-Pollard continues to impress in her debut year on the IJF World Tour by winning bronze.

Following an opening round bye, Lucy Renshall produced a great piece of progressive newaza to defeat Gabriella Moraes (BRA) to win her Pool and progress safely to the Semi-Finals where she faced Katharina Haecker (AUS).

Haecker was awarded three penalty shidos in the Semi-Final handing victory and a place in the Final to Renshall, where she faced Gankhaich Bold (MGL).

In the closing stages of the contest, Renshall trusted in her ability in newaza again to hold her opponent down for 20 seconds and claim her second Grand Slam gold medal of the year.

Lucy was delighted to win her second Grand Slam gold medal: “I’m so happy to win my second Grand Slam gold medal today. It was a tough day, but to come out on top if a fantastic feeling. I would like to thank Jamie (Johnson) for supporting me all day.”

Kelly Petersen-Pollard was narrowly defeated in her Quarter-Final contest against Millena Silva (BRA), a waza-ari score in the closing seconds of the contest enough to see the Brazilian through to the Semi-Finals whilst Petersen-Pollard progressed to the Repechage for a change to fight in the bronze medal contest.

A single waza-ari score was enough to see Petersen-Pollard defeat Gunel Hasanli (AZE) to book her place in the bronze medal match and face Julie Hoelterhoff (GER).

Petersen-Pollard registered a seoi-nage in the opening minute for waza-ari score with a second waza-ari coming in the final 40-seconds to claim the bronze medal, and her first at a Grand Slam event.

Speaking after her competition Kelly said: “Today wasn’t my best performance, but the fact I am walking away with a bronze medal shows how I have progressed as an athlete in a short period. I know what I need to work on going forwards but what was particularly pleasing was seeing what I have been working off in training work for me today. I am now looking forward to a hard weeks training in Albania.”

There was disappointment in the -73kg category as Eric Ham picked up a shoulder injury in his opening round contest against Ertur Turdubaev (KGZ) and was unable to continue, whilst Daniel Powell was defeated by PanAmerican Junior Champion Gabriel Falcao (BRA) in the opening round.

It was a tough day for our fighters at the European U23 Championships as all three fighters suffered opening round defeats.

In the -81kg category Lachlan Moorhead and Louis Delsol who were defeated by Tiziano Falcone (ITA) and Dobromir Kalisterski (BUL) respectively. Whilst Max Gregory was awarded three penalty shidos in his contest against Kenny Liveze (FRA).