British judoka ready for China challenge

Nine British judoka will have their eyes on medals and Rio Olympic qualification points this weekend at the Qingdao Grand Prix in Qingdao, China from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 November.

A number of the British team selected have been in action in the Port-Louis and Wollongong Continental Opens earlier this month with the likes of Kimberley Renicks, Megan Fletcher, Sarah Adlington and Jan Gosiewski all medalling in at least one of the tournaments.

On Friday 20 Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Kimberley Renicks is in action in the -48kg as she looks to add to her bronze medals in the preceding two tournaments. She takes on Nataliya Kondratyeva (RUS) in her opening match-up.

Megan Fletcher (-70kg), Patrick Dawson (-73kg), Jan Gosiewski (-73kg) and Tom Reed (-81kg) all take to the mat on Saturday 21 with Fletcher looking to back up her gold in Wollongong last week as she faces Tashkent Grand Prix silver medallist Esther Stam (GEO) in the second round.

Dawson has placed at Port-Louis and Wollongong but will be aiming for silverware in China while Gosiewski won bronze last week. They will be starting their day against Andrea Regis (ITA) and Morocco Masters champion Denis Iartcev (RUS) respectively.

Tom Reed missed Wollongong due to illness so he will be looking to make up for lost time as he steps on the mat against Wentao Zhang (CHN).

Sunday 22 sees Gemma Gibbons (-78kg), Sarah Adlington (+78kg), Andy Burns (-90kg) and Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg) on the hunt for medals and points.

Gibbons has been in a good run of form since taking gold at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix in July and a good result will keep up the pressure on teammate Natalie Powell. She faces Marta Tort Merino (ESP) in her first contest.

Sarah Adlington was another British gold medallist in Wollongong last week and another strong performance will cement her place in direct qualification with her first match against Abu Dhabi Grand Slam gold medallist Sisi Ma (CHN).

Burns and Chamberlain both medalled at the Glasgow European Open but haven’t added to that since starting their tour. Both judoka will be looking to change that in China as they have David Ruiz Zajac (ARG) and Christian Schmidt (ARG) in their opening contests.

Check out the full draw on ippon.org and you can watch all the action from the final block on each day live on ippon.tv

The action starts at 10.00am local time (2am GMT) on each day and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for all British judoka results