Alice Schlesinger lost to Yang of China in the repechage to finish in 7^th place on a tough second day for Great Britain at the Samsun Grand Prix. 

In her first contest of the day Schlesinger took on 21 year old Mongolian Gankhaich Bold. It was only Bold’s eighth contest at senior level and Schlesinger took advantage, scoring a waza-ari and then an ippon to win the tie in just under two minutes.

That victory set up a Pool D Final against World number 20 Mia Hermansson of Sweden. Schlesinger looked confident as she recorded an early penalty score. With both athletes going shoulder to shoulder to win the match the referee judged Schlesinger to have gripped the Swede’s judogi below the belt as they fell to the ground. That decision awarded the contest to Hermansson and sent Schlesinger into the repechage where she faced Junxia Yang of China.

World number 10 Yang forced Schlesinger to the ground where she turned the Briton before applying a decisive pin. Schlesinger finished the day in 7^th place.

Danny Williams (-73kgs) started the day brightly, overcoming a partisan crowd to defeat 26 year old Turkish competitor Bayram Ceylan. The Camberley judoka forced Ceylan to tap out inside two minutes to win the tie.

In his next contest Williams faced Guillaume Chaine of France, who had beaten Hvidkaer (DEN) in the previous round. Williams started well as Chaine conceded an early penalty score to the Briton. The referee awarded three more shidos which put both athletes on two penalties a piece midway into the match. In a tight and high tempo contest, Williams conceded a third penalty which forced him to chase the tie in the remaining 19 seconds. Williams was unable to register the score he needed and exited the competition.

Sally Conway faced rising star Marie Eve Gahie of France in her opening contest in the -70kgs. The 19 year who already has a top 30 world ranking, utilised her significant height advantage over Conway. However, Conway went on the attack and attempted to flip Gahie in the first minute but was unsuccessful. Conway went on to concede two penalty scores and eventually ran out of time to effect the result in her favour.

Elsewhere in -81kgs Owen Livesey had a tricky first contest against Robin Pacek of Sweden. Pacek attempted several throws early on but Livesey used his strength and balance to escape each time. However, Livesey was in front as the contest entered the third minute after Pacek had been penalised twice earlier in the match. In a grueling contest Pacek managed to throw Livesey for an ippon in the final minute to snatch the victory.

Meanwhile Tom Reed was handed a tough draw in the -81kgs. Reed faced Mongolian Dagvasuren Nyamsuren in the first contest of the day on Mat 1. It was a tough contest against the World number 30 for Reed who was defeated by ippon within two minutes. 

Jan Gosiewski took on the Ukraine’s Serhiy Drebot in the first round of the -73kgs. Gosiewski used his strong right handed grip to launch several attacks in the opening minutes of the contest. Gosiewski was two penalty scores to one up going into the final minute of the tie when Drebot executed an impressive throw to eliminate Gosiewski from the competition.

“It’s been a tough day today”, said GB Elite Performance Coach Jean-Paul Bell. “A few mistakes and some decisions which didn’t go our way. Everyone gave 100% as usual and they will now refocus and move on to the next event”.

Tomorrow will see Frazer Chamberlain (-90kgs), Ben Fletcher, Philip Awiti-Alcaraz (both -100kgs) and Chris Sherrington (+100kgs) step onto the mat in the men’s section. Meanwhile Sarah Adlington (+78kgs) will be the only British woman in action on the final day of the 2016 Samsun Grand Prix.

Watch all the action live on ippon.tv from 08.00am GMT and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates on all the British competitors.