Nekoda Davis picked up her second -57kgs Samsun Grand Prix bronze medal on the first day of action in Turkey.

The Ealing judoka started the day against Manon Durbach of Luxembourg who she forced to tap out for an ippon after recording a yuko earlier in the contest. That victory took Davis to a Pool B showdown with veteran German competitor Miryam Roper. World number 14 Roper was ranked two places above Davis going into the contest, used all of her experience to score an ippon within 20 seconds. That defeat sent Davis into the repechage. 

Davis had to come from two penalty scores behind against Spain’s Jaione Equisoain in a tight repechage contest. Davis forced the Spaniard backwards and onto the floor to score a yuko with less than a minute to go to win the match.

20 year old Theresa Stoll awaited Davis in one of the bronze medal matches. The German had already defeated World number 12 Sabrina Filzmoser (AUT) and Serbia’s Jovana Rogic prior to her meeting with Davis. Both players worked hard to find a strong grip in the initial exchanges before Stoll received a shido for stepping out. Both players received a penalty score each when with a minute to go Davis struck, scoring a waza-ari before scoring a yuko to seal the bronze medal.

“Today has not been my best day in judo but I have things to work on and improve on for the Europeans”, said Davis.

GB Elite Performance Coach Kate Howey MBE added: “Nekoda fought ok today but was not her best by far. To medal at a Grand Prix when you’re not fighting at your best shows just how far she has come in this [Rio] qualification period. She dug deep and came out with the medal”.

Meanwhile, in the -60kgs Ashley McKenzie started the day against Finland’s Juho Reinvall. In what was the first contest between the two, McKenzie showing great strength and control to avoid getting flipped by the Fin early on. In what was a finely poised contest McKenzie advanced to the next round on 3-1 penalties.

In the second round McKenzie faced Arif Bagirov of Belarus. McKenzie conceded two penalties before taking the lead with a deserved yuko score. However, Bagirov hit back with a yuko of his own in the final second of the contest. That meant the referee award the contest to the Belarussian on the account of him not conceding any penalty scores to McKenzie’s two.

Nathon Burns and Colin Oates were both in action in the -66kgs. Burns defeated Slovakian Matej Poliak two minutes into their contest to set up a tough second round match against World number 15 Altansukh Dovdon (MGL). Burns was unable to escape from underneath the Mongolian’s pin and exited the competition.

Colin Oates won his first contest of the day against Ganbold Munkhtur (MGL) who was penalised for hansokomake (illegal leg grab) which gifted the contest to the Norfolk judoka. That set up a tie with Limhwan Kim (KOR).

In a tight contest both players exchanged three penalty scores each before Kim forced Oates onto his back for a waza-ari with seconds to go. That score decided the contest in favour of the South Korean who went on to win the gold medal.

Kim Renicks faced 18 year old local judoka Melisa Cakmakli in the first round of the -48kgs competition. In a tight contest the two were level on penalties one a piece, before Cakmakli scored a decisive waza-ari with 40 seconds to go. Renicks rallied to score a yuko but was unable to overturn the scores in the final 20 seconds of the contest.

It was Laure Fournier’s first ever appearance at Grand Prix level when see took on Russia’s Irina Zablundina in the -57kgs. The Russian got the Briton to the floor twice early on but was unable to register a score. The tempo of the contest increased mid-way through the tie as the Russian scored a yuko. That proved to be the decisive score which sent Fournier out of the competition.

Danny Williams, Jan Gosiewski (both -73kgs), Owen Livesey and Tom Reed (both -81kgs) will be in action tomorrow in the men’s. Meanwhile in the women’s section Alice Schlesinger (-63kgs) and Sally Conway (-70kg) will also be on the mat looking for valuable Olympic qualification points for Rio.

Watch all the action live on ippon.tv from 08.00am GMT and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates on the British competitors.