Stewart and Adlington in action on final day of the Tel Aviv Grand Slam

Saturday saw the Tel Aviv Grand Slam draw to a close with two British Judo fighters in action.

It was a long wait before Max Stewart (-90kg), who last competed in Perth in 2019, stepped onto the mat. Originally scheduled to enter the competition in round 2, he had a further bye through to round 3 where he was defeated by two-time Masters Champion, Beka Gviniashvili (GEO). Stewart falling into a hold down and Gviniashvili capitalising to pin his opponent for ippon score.

Sarah Adlington (+78kg) was making her 25^th Grand Slam appearance in Tel Aviv. Following an opening round bye, the Edinburgh judoka, was defeated by Anzhela Gasparani (RUS) in the second round. A change of direction by the Russian scoring her a waza-ari and then a 10 second hold down for ippon score saw her progress to the next round.

This year’s Tel Aviv Grand Slam will be remembered for the opening day which saw Chelsie Giles (pictured centre left) win the -52kg category, defeating the current Olympic Champion en-route to the final.

Ashley McKenzie (-60kg) and Stuart McWatt (-81kg) both narrowly missed out on medals finishing in 5th. While Kelly Petersen-Pollard (-70kg) and Lucy Renshall (-63kg) both finished 7th.