World Cup treble for Thomas Davis

British Open champion Thomas Davis continued his rich vein of form on the World Cup stage as he took bronze in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Sunday. 

Davis, 29, has now clinched World Cup bronze in the -81kg category on three successive weekends with his previous two bronzes coming in Madrid and Lisbon.

In his opening contest, Davis registered a full house on the scoreboard as he produced a yuko and waza-ari before sealing a convincing win by ippon against Jose Vianna (URU).

In his second contest the in-form Londoner saw off hometown judoka Ivan Duarte (ARG) by waza-ari.

The semi-final pitted Davis against former junior world champion Avtandil Tchrikishvili (GEO) who finished in fifth-place at both the European Championships and IJF Rio Grand Slam in 2012.

The Briton lost out by the narrowest of margins as a yuko gave Tchrikishvili victory as he went to win the gold medal.

That defeat saw Davis fight for bronze against Alain Aprahamian (URU) and claim a place on the medal rostrum by way of ippon.

Tom Davis said on twitter: “Bronze yet again, this time in Argentina. After three hard weeks and three medals I can’t complain but there’s more hard work to be done though.”

Lewis Keeble, 21, started his -66kg campaign with a win over Gonzalo Ferro (ARG) having followed up on his waza-ari lead by firing himself into the next round by ippon.

The 2011 British Open silver medallist lost out in the second round against Luiz Revite (BRA) who went on to take silver.

Keeble reverted to the repechage where he dispatched Fabian Gonzalez (COL) who finished fifth at the IJF Rio Grand Slam by two yuko scores.

In the bronze medal contest the rising Brit defeated Fernando Gonzalez (ARG) by ippon.

In the same category Nathon Burns posted a win over Jorge Alex Machado (BRA) by ippon before losing out to 2012 European bronze medallist Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO) by two yuko scores.

Burns’ repechage bid was ended by Patrick Gagne (CAN) by ippon which saw the 2011 British Open winner finish in seventh-place.