Jemima Duxberry (-63kg) finished seventh at her first Junior World Championships after a shoulder injury while fighting a Japanese judoka in the quarter-final forced her to withdraw before the repechage fight against the eventual bronze medallist Maylin Del Toro Carvajal of Cuba.

Having gained a bye in the first round, her first bout was characterised by some good ne-waza over Canadian Beatrice Valois Fortier when having already led by yuko, Duxberry scored ippon on the floor by a “sangaku” triangle choke in her first bout.

She then edged through to the third round following a late yuko over Szabina Gercsak in the final 20 seconds of the contest. Up until that point she was a yuko behind, but her opponent’s shido ensured Duxberry the win.

This set her up for the quarter-final against Megumi Tsugane of Japan, which she led by two shidos until the Japanese judoka threw her for waza-ari. She landed on the shoulder, causing her to roll for yuko in pain and then while pinned to the ground, she conceded for the ippon by tapping out.

Duxberry was due to enter the repechage against the Cuban but withdrew because of her injury and accepted seventh place.

Speaking after the event, she said: “I am still in pain and of course disappointed that I didn’t medal. It was not the result that I wanted but to settle for 7th is okay for my first worlds.”

Meanwhile, Max Stewart (-81kg) suffered disappointment after fighting confidently through three rounds of the competition yet, he came away empty-handed after losing to a tough Japanese opponent.

First he threw Peter Zilka of Slovakia for ippon which was later downgraded to waza-ari, before quickly doing the same, this time counting for its full worth.

This early victory was further bolstered when, in the next match, he held down Jose Soto of Chile for ippon. This came after he dominated the match by being ahead by a yuko and on shidos.

However, his hopes of a medal were dashed when Kenya Kohora of Japan, who went on to win a silver medal beat him by a waza-ari and two yukos in the pool semi-final.

Earlier in the day Amy Livesey (-70kg) put up a strong fight against the reigning Junior European Champion Barbara Matic of Croatia. However the strong Croatian claimed ippon, a pattern she repeated in most of her contests to eventually win the gold medal to become world champion.

Natasha Maslen, who fought in the same weight group, narrowly beat Sophia Swain of the USA by a single yuko to progress further. However, Margaux Pinot of France took the next contest by an ippon, while a waza-ari up.

Katie Jemima Yeats-Brown, a former European Cadet Champion and World Cadet bronze medallist exited early after Korean Saho Ahn took an ippon victory.

Nigel Dononhue, Performance Director said: “It was a disappointing end to a promising day with Jemima Duxberry coming through her first round contest with ease against Valios-Fortier of Canada in readiness to face the current Junior European silver medalist, Gercsak of Hungary.

“Jemima went a yuko down in the opening exchange, but managed force a crucial penalty against her opponent for leaving the contest area with three minutes on the clock.

“Gercsak dominated this contest as Jemima tried everything she had to make a positive score. With time running out, a change in gripping tactic provided an opportunity to attack and Jemima scored a yuko with o’uchi gari with seconds to spare and the early shido proved to be the deciding factor against a very strong opponent.

“For a place in the semi-final, Jemima came up against Tsugane of Japan. Jemima took full control of this contest and forced the Japanese to pick up two penalties for passivity. Under pressure, Tsugane, attacked her way out of Jemima’s dominant grip and scored a yuko with hara goshi.

“Unfortunately for Jemima, she landed on the point of her shoulder which resulted in her unable to continue in the contest. The injury is serious enough that she had to be withdrawn from the competition, meaning she finished with a credible seventh place.”

“Max Stewart also started off extremely well defeating his first two round opponents in style, but came up against the formidable Kohara of Japan for a quarter-final place who defeated Max and then went on to win a silver medal.”

Tomorrow is the last chance for Philip Awiti-Alcaraz to secure a junior world title. The multiple world cup medallist at junior level will be hoping to seize the ultimate silverware in his final year at U21s.

The -100kg judoka will lead for the men and he will be joined in action by Jodie Myers at +78kg representing the women.

On the Sunday, Great Britain will also be taking part in the team event to round off the five-day spectacle in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Tune in to ippon tv, ippon.org and British Judo’s social media channels for updates on all the action throughout the weekend.

Words by Donna Richardson.