Team Bath’s Gary Hall got 2016 off to a good start with a bronze medal at the Tunis African Open on Sunday 17 January.

The -90kg judoka saw off the challenge of Youssef Agrebi (TUN) in his opening contest scoring for waza-ari and ippon in the first minute.

However Hall came undone against his next opponent Cetic Jesenko (SLO) and was forced into the repechage where he got the better of the higher ranked Spaniard David Ruiz Zajac scoring for yuko and ippon.

His bronze medal contest against Tural Safguliyev (AZE) was a very one-sided affair as the 2015 British champion won with less than 20 seconds on the clock as he scored for ippon.

Speaking afterwards Hall said he was pleased to have started his year with a medal:

“Off the back of a disappointing 2015, it was nice to start the year with a medal and win some more point towards Rio.

“With the end of Olympic qualification only getting closer it’s important for me to win more medals and gain more point towards Rio! Next stop for me will be Austria and Czech European Opens.”

Gregg Varey (-66kg) and Patrick Dawson (-73kg) were also in action on Saturday 16 at the African Open. Both judoka went out in their opening contests to Sulaiman Hamad (KSA) and David Ancor (CAN) respectively.

This weekend 12 British judoka are in action at the Havana Grand Prix from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 January