Two out of two players succeeded at the Sarhadchi Sport Olympic Centre during the first day of the Baku Grand Slam. Both, Nekoda Davis and Colin Oates was able to claim silver medals to kick off an exciting weekend for GB elite judo team.

Colin Oates started the day as a defending champion and number one seeded in the u66kg category with leaving no space to question either of his positions. In his first contest, Oates dominated Ardanov (RUS) with his outstanding ne-waza skills. An astonishing osoto-gari throw against Shmailov (ISR) in the quarter finals allowed Oates to face World medalist Uriarte (ESP) in the semi-final, where he managed to overcome his opponent by a yuko worthy sumi-gaeshi attack.

In the final, Oates was to beat home favourite Shikhalizada (AZE). The two of them previously met before with the outcome of a British success. Today’s match also started up level with only few penalties hanging on the score boards. In the last minute of the contest, Oates stepped onto a left sided tai-otoshi throw delivered by Shikhalizada.

Recently returned to the mat after recovering from an injury, Colin Oates is certainly back in the game. “It was disappointing not to be able to defend my title but all things considered it was a successful day today. I felt strong from start to finish and the final could have swung either way. Second event of the year, my third consecutive year attaining a Grand Slam medal and loads more World Ranking points and more Olympic qualification points, so overall I am pleased.” – explained Oates after the final.

Jean-Paul Bell, GB elite men performance coach was also positive regarding today’s performance: “I thought Colin was good all day today and was tactically sound. He has proven consistent at this level and this will give him confidence going into Masters. He fought a close final and was caught with a nice piece of judo going for the win.”

Nekoda Davis put on a show in the u57kg category, repeating last week’s performance again winning her first three fights in style. Starting off the day by defeating 2008 Beijing Olympic Champion, Quintavalle (ITA). Davis first scored waza-ari with a makikomi attack before putting the Italian down by her famous and yet dangerous right sided ouchi-gari. To move on, she threw Samsun GP winner Waechter (GER) in the quarter-finals to then settle Ohai (ROU) for the bronze contest. The British fighter was down by two penalties at both occasions and yet managed to overcome her opponents which shows great composure.

Today was the third time that Davis was to face Olympic silver medalist Caprioriu (ROU) who she had previously defeated twice. In the final, Davis once again looked like she will triple up the triumph until Caprioriu caught her arm in ne-waza to win the 2015 Baku Grand Slam title in the u57kg category.

“I am a little bit disappointed to have lost against Capriouriu but nonetheless I am very proud of my achievement today. This is my first ever Grand Slam results and to do it off the back of a gold last week makes me really happy.” – Davis expressed her thought.

“Nekoda has fought fantastic over the last month winning a gold a silver and a bronze at Grand Prix and Grand Slam level. This shows how much progression she has made and also that she can mix with anyone in the world. She has achieved the goal of qualifying for the masters so that is even better as it is all about points and qualification for Rio” – said GB elite women performance coach, Kate Howey.

Day two will bring more action from our elite athletes. Alice Schlesinger and Gemma Howell will battle through the u63kg category whilst Sally Conway will aim to repeat last year success in the u70kg category.

All the three athletes will be competing on mat 3 tomorrow. To watch online please follow the link: http://ippon.tv/. The tournament starts 6:00AM (GMT).