World Championship Bronze for Sally Conway

On Day 5 of the World Judo Championships in Tokyo, Sally Conway was in magnificent form as she won British Judo’s first medal of the Championships claiming bronze in the -70kg category to add to her Olympic bronze and European silver.

Conway defeated Gulnoza Matniyazova (UZB), Giovanna Scoccimarro (GER) and world ranked no.3 Anna Bernholm (SWE) to win her Pool and progress to the Semi-Finals where she faced world no.2 Marie-Eve Gahie (FRA). Gahie, 2018 World Championship silver medallist, capitalised upon a Conway mistake to win the match with an osaekomi meaning Conway was progressed to the bronze medal match to face Michaela Polleres (AUT) while the French player eventually won gold.

In the bronze medal match, Conway was dominant from the start scoring a waza-ari early in the contest, only for Polleres to even the score. However, this did not faze Conway as she threw her opponent for ippon to win the match and claim her first World Championship medal.

Upon winning bronze Conway said: ‘I just wanted to turn up today and give my best fight and performance. I’m happy I was able to do this and produce a medal at my 8th World Championships.’

Senior Performance Head Coach, Kate Howey MBE said: ‘Sally put in a hard and gritty performance today, winning all her fights with throws which shows after all the experience she has, she is still making improvements and she didn’t win any fight in ne-waza. I’m really pleased for her to get a medal and complete the set of World, Olympic and European medals’