First round exit for Kelly Edwards at World Championships

Kelly Edwards lost a close tactical fight to Joana Ramos (POR) at the 2017 World Judo Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday 29 August.

Edwards had a good end to 2016 after returning from concussion, winning bronze medals at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and Zagreb Grand Prix, as well as a gold at the Glasgow European Open.

An injury-hit 2017 has made it a stop-start year but a seventh place at the Tbilisi Grand Prix and a win over Amandine Buchard at the European Championships showed what Edwards is capable of.

She was taking on the highly-experienced Joana Ramos of Portugal in the first round in Budapest. Ramos had won a bronze medal at the European Championships in Warsaw earlier this year.

In a close contest Edwards pushed Ramos close with the Portuguese judoka looking active early on. Both judoka picked up shidos for passivity before Edwards picked a second shido with a minute to go.

The British judoka did well to hold out Ramos as they went into golden score including pulling back a second shido. However, after the first exchange in golden score Edwards was given a third and final shido for passivity which lost her the contest.

Tomorrow Bekky Livesey and Nekoda Davis will be taking to the mat at -57kg. Livesey will take on Kazakhstan’s Sevara Nishanbayeva in the first round while Davis will face the winner of Kseniia Beldiagina (KGZ) and Irina Zabludina (RUS)

Competition starts at 1000 Local time (0900 UK time) with live coverage via live.ijf.org and @BritishJudo on Twitter. Don’t forget to tweet your support at #WeAreGBJudo