Seventh place finish in Tel Aviv for Lucy Renshall

Lucy Renshall finished seventh on the second day of the 2019 Tel Aviv Grand Prix on Friday 25 January.

The -63kg judoka was fighting for just the second time since knee surgery in 2018. Renshall had won bronze at the European Championships in Tel Aviv last year and she made a strong start today.

A big uki-goshi ippon saw off Isabel Puche (ESP) in her first contest and secured Renshall’s place in the quarter-finals.

However, she found the going tough against Maria Centracchio (ITA) with the Italian’s awkward style resulting in Renshall getting three shidos.

This dropped her into the repechage final against Sanne Vermeer (NED). It was a very tactical contest with Vermeer taking the win in the final seconds with a waza-ari score.

Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) went out in her first contest to Dutch fighter Geke Van Der Berg. The British fighter was fighting in Israel for just the second time since switching to Great Britain in 2014.

Schlesinger picked up two shidos in quick succession and was countered by Van Der Berg for waza-ari as she looked to get back into the contest.

The British fighter forced a shido on her opponent, but Van Der Berg finished the contest in the final minute with a second waza-ari score.

At -73kg, Eric Ham went to golden score against Augusto Meloni (ITA). The Italian judoka’s power proved decisive as he forced Ham into picking up three shidos.

Saturday 26 January is the final day of competition at the Tel Aviv Grand Prix. Natalie Powell (-78kg), Jemima Yeats-Brown (-78kg) and Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg) will be looking to add to Nekoda Smythe-Davis’s -57kg bronze from Thursday.

Competition starts at 0800 UK time with live stream via live.ijf.org. Follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates.