A bumper GB squad will be making the trip to the Netherlands this weekend (Friday 17 – Sunday 19 November) in their search for Gold, in what will be the final Grand Prix of the season.
A squad combined with a mixture of youth and experience will take to the mat at The Hague Grand Prix beginning on Friday morning with the lightweight categories. With the Tokyo Grand Slam looming in December, the athletes will be looking to claim the final medals of the year to gain momentum going into 2018 ahead of the qualification period for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics opening in May.
At just 20 years of age, Jamal Petgrave (-90kg) will be making his Grand Prix debut after a successful Junior career. Petgrave, in particular, won GB Judo’s first gold medal at the Bremen International Masters event since Craig Fallon achieved the feat back in 2001. He also won individual bronze at the Junior European Championships in Maribor and got fifth at the Junior World Championships in Zagreb.
Eric Ham (-73kg) will also be moving into the senior ranks next year and fights in his second Grand Prix. He has picked up a range of medals throughout his short career to date with medals at the Arad and Leibnitz Junior European Cups this year. The duo were also part of the Team that claimed the bronze medal at the Junior European Championships back in September.
Kelly Staddon (-48kg) enjoyed a sterling weekend at the U23 European Championships in Montenegro last week as she came away with a bronze medal. The Ford Judo Club judoka defeated the likes of Gultaj Mammadaliyeva (AZE), the Junior European Championship bronze medallist on her way to claiming the podium place. She has seen an upturn in form in the second half of 2017 with Gold at the Saarbruecken Senior European Cup and silver at the Belgrade European Open.
Chelsie Giles (-52kg) will be looking to build upon her 7th placed finish in her Grand Prix debut in Tbilisi from back in March. She is just making the transition from junior competition to senior and has shown glimpses of her potential to compete at the highest level. It looks to be a competitive -52kg category with the likes of Belgium’s World No.8 Charline Van Snick seeded first for the event.
Bekky Livesey will be hoping to add a third Grand Prix medal to her growing collection as she enters the -57kg category. The SKK Judo Club fighter will be looking to go one step further than her bronze medals claimed at the Zagreb and Antalya Grand Prix respectively.
Following a succession of injuries, Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) will be looking to build upon a series of impressive results throughout 2017 culminating in a bronze medal at the European Championships. The two-time Baku Grand Slam Gold medallist will go into the -63kg competition as the highest ranked athlete, so she will be the one to beat!
2017 has been a consistent year for Sarah Adlington in the -78kg category. She has placed in all four of her last four events with a silver medal in the Saarbruecken European Cup, bronze medals at the Tashkent and Cancun Grand Prix and fifth in the Zagreb Grand Prix. This has seen her rise up to 24th in the World Rankings. World No.3 and home favourite Tessie Savelkouls (NED) will be top seeded for the event.
They will be joined on the mat throughout the weekend by Ashley McKenze (-60kg), Sam Hall (-60kg), Danny Williams (-73kg), Owen Livesey (-81kg), Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg), Kimberley Renicks (-48kg) and sisters Sally and Rachel Moon (-78kg).
