Positive feelings were left behind at the Palace of Sport after the first day of the invite-only World Judo Masters event, which was held on the African continent for the first time. Namely in Rabat, Morocco.

Four of our elite athletes were battling amongst other world class judoka. Great effort was on display from every one and each of the athletes. Ashley McKenzie (-60kg) started off the day by facing Ilgar Mushkiyev (AZE), where the contest could have gone either way. At the end, a single shido different, not in favour of McKenzie, was the decision making point on which one of the athletes will go through to the second round.

Nekoda Davis met later on winner, Sumiya Dorjsuren (MGL) in the first round of the -57kg category. The Mongolian threw first for yuko which Davis soon managed to balance out before getting caught once more for a yuko score. Two to one shidos in favour of Davis wasn’t enough to book a spot in the quarters. 

“Today there has been some positives although the results don’t show it. Just to be here you have to be in the top 16 in the world so that means every fight they have basically a medal fight in any other tournament. I was pleased with Nekoda as she showed today that she can mix with the best in the world and score on them. She is improving all the time. The players have come to the end of competition phase which was 3 competitions in 4 weeks and are mentally and physically tired but they have a few days off before going to a training camp in Mongolia and then the European Games in Baku.” – Kate Howey, elite perfomance coach recaped her thoughts. 

A weight category above, Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) was facing Baku Grand Slam silver medalist, Martina Trajdos (GER). Schlesinger started off with a promising performance until Trajdos dived in for a left sided uchi-mata scoring yuko. The next move come from Schelisnger, however the German judoka managed to block it and follow it up with a transition into shime-waza to end the contest.

Colin Oates returned to the game not long ago after recovering from an injury. Having been competed only at two tournaments this years, yet winning silver at the Baku Grand Slam few weeks ago, Oates was ready to take on the world. Started off with a strong entry in the first round against Sugoi Uriarte (ESP), where a waza-ari score helped him to step onto the stage two against Shershan (BLR). Oates put the first score on the board by a yuko worth of ure-nage throw. Half way through to the contest Shershan thrown himself in for a left sided ouchi-gari to book his spot into the semi-finals. Korval (FRA) was facing Oates in the repechage contest which started off with a penlaty for each contender. A second penalty was picked up by Oates before Korval scored for waza-ari with a left sided seoi-nage, which lead the British fighter to finish 7th place. 

“Colin fought well today and although the result wasn’t what he came for, he is consistently performing at a high level. It was good to see some of the technical work he is drilling in practice paying dividends at the highest level.” – explained Jean-Paul Bell, elite performance coach.

The second and last day of the tournament will bring actions from Sally Conway (-70kg) and Natalie Powell (-78kg). Conway will be up against this year’s Asian Champion Tsend-Ayush (MGL), whilst Powell will take on African Championship silver medalist Mazouz (GAB) in the first round of the -78kg category.

The tournament will start 11:00am(GMT). Watch online via http://134.213.29.25/live/