Silver for Giles on the Opening Day of the Tbilisi Grand Slam

On the opening day of the Tbilisi Grand Slam, Chelsie Giles continued her incredible recent form claiming silver.

Chelsie, who won gold at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam on her last outing, was seeded 3^rd in Tbilisi and she certainly lived up to expectation, winning her Pool, defeating Joana Diogo (POR), Djamila Silva (CPV) and Angelica Delgado (USA), all by ippon score.

In the semi-final she defeated Larissa Pimenta (BRA) with two waza-ari scores to progress to the final and face Olympic silver medallist Odette Giuffrida (ITA).

The final was a tense affair with nothing between the two fighters until the contest neared the 10-minute mark and Chelsie was awarded a third penalty shido, handing victory, and the gold medal, to Giuffrida.

Speaking after the competition, Chelsie said: “I am really happy with today’s performance. I proved to myself that I can continue to perform at this level and am looking forward to my next competition at the Antalya Grand Slam next week.”

Reflecting on the competition, British Judo Elite Performance Coach, Jamie Johnson said: “Chelsie is now starting to develop into a consistent, world class fighter, and is now up there with the top fighters in the -52kg category.

“The way she controlled her first four fights today was fantastic. She was on the mat for less the 5-minutes total in winning those contests.

“The final was so close, but ultimately the experience of the Italian fighter showed. Whilst Chelsie came close, holding her down for a few seconds, she just couldn’t hold on. We all know how strong Chelsie is in newaza and the Italian defended hard against this.

“Chelsie fought Giuffrida at the Paris Grand Slam back in 2019, where she was also beaten, but she is much closer now. Next time, hopefully, will be a different outcome.”

Yasmin Javadian had an opening round bye before defeating Shafag Mammadova (AZE) in the second round by a single waza-ari score. In Round 3 she was defeated by the vastly experienced Joana Ramos (POR) in Golden Score, who later went on to win bronze.

In the -60 kg contest Josh Giles defeated African Championship bronze medallist Alexandre De Barros E Silva (CPV), but was defeated by Tornike Tsjakadoea (NED) in Round 2 after being awarded a 3rd shido in Golden Score.

Amy Platten defeated the 2019 Asian-Pacific Champion Yanan Li (CHN) in the opening round by a waza-ari, scored in the final 30 seconds of the contest. In Round 2 she was defeated by 4^th seed Laura Martinez Abelenda (ESP).

Acelya Toprak had a tough opening round contest against 5^th seed Eteri Liparteliani (GEO), who is a former World and European Champion. A single waza-ari score enough to see the Georgian progress to the next round and later win silver.

Michael Fryer gave a great account of himself on his Grand Slam debut in the -66kg category. He faced a tough opening round contest against world number 6, and 2^nd seeded fighter, Kherlen Ganbold (MGL) in Round 2, but was unfortunately defeated after amassing three penalty shidos and Ganbold progresed to win bronze.

Tomorrow sees 7 British Judo fighters in action: Amy Livesey and Lucy Renshall in the -63kg category. Eric Ham and Daniel Powell in the -73kg category. Gemma Howell and Jemima Yeats-Brown compete in the -70kg category and Lachlan Moorhead makes his Grand Slam debut in the -81kg competition.

Action starts at 6:00am (GMT) on Saturday with Final Block scheduled to commence at 13:00 (GMT).

British Judo will bring you a recap of how all your British fighters perform each day and you can follow the action on the British Judo social media channels. You can also watch the action live on the British Judo homepage.