Despite the unfortunate early exit for the majority of the team, great effort and promising performance was seen by the British Judo elite team at the Dom Sportova Sport Hall during the second day of the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia. Moreover, a silver medal won by Sally Conway has been added to yesterday’s collection which set Team GB to sit second place on the overall medal table.

On her way to the podium, Conway first put away Cantoni (ITA) by a yuko score to then throw another yuko before she held down Renaud-Roy (CAN) in the quarter-finals. Conway’s domination in ne-waza continued as she straightened Klys’s (POL) arm to move onto the final contest. Linda Bolder (ISR) stood in the way of Conway to stand on the top of the podium. In the final match up, the British fighter started off with promising gripping exchange against Bolder and just as Conway would open up to an ashi-waza attack, the Israeli judoka countered her for a yuko score before ending the contest by a hold-down. With today’s silver medal, Conway was to celebrate her seventh consecutive Grand Prix medal.

“I think the team feel a boost when you have a good medal on the first day… tomorrow the team will step on the mat with real confidence after seeing their team mates win medals. All we ask for is for them to perform the best of their abilities and we will see what happens.” – explained GB Elite performance coach, Kate Howey when asked about the expectations for tomorrow.

“I am really pleased with Sally’s performance today and back to back Grand Prix medals which is a boosting confidence going into Baku Grand Slam next week” – added Jean-Paul Bell, GB Elite performance coach

There are six remaining athletes yet to compete on the last day of the tournament. Olympic silver medalist, Gemma Gibbons will take on Dmitrieva (RUS) in the first round, whilst Natalie Powell will wait for the second round to see whether Galeone (ITA) or Apotekar (SLO) will be facing her in the -78kg category. Jodie Myers will be challenged by Kaya (TUR) in the +78kg category.

Ben Fletcher also on showcase tomorrow alongside Philip Awiti-Alcarez in the -100kg category. Fletcher’s first contest will be Kronberger (AUT) whilst Awiti-Alcarez will meet Nikiforov (BEL). Gary Hall has Nyman (SWE) to defeat in the first round of the -90kg category.

The tournament will start 9:00am (GMT) tomorrow morning. For further information on the draw please visit http://www.ippon.org/gp_cro2015.php

For live stream please see the link below
http://134.213.29.25/live/