It was a bittersweet day as Lucy Renshall picked up one of the biggest wins of her career to date but an elbow injury meant she missed out on a chance to fight for a medal.
Fighting on Saturday 25 February, day two of the Grand Prix, Renshall looked in dominant form in her opening contest against Kamila Badurova (RUS). The British judoka had won their previous encounter at the European Under-23s last year and looked untroubled against her opponent. Superior gripping and attacking meant the Russian picked up three shidos before the end of regulation time.
World No.8 Mariana Silva was next up and it was another good performance from Renshall as despite conceding a shido she looked the more positive judoka. Towards the end of regulation time Renshall countered an attempted attack by Silva and threw her opponent by ippon to book her spot in the final four.
Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA), World No.2 and arguably the biggest thrower at -63kg, stood in her way but Renshall didn’t look out of place and gave as good as she got. With just under two minutes to go Renshall almost had a chance in ne-waza as she applied sankaku but the powerful French judoka muscled her out. The Olympic silver medallist came roaring back and threw Renshall with a massive technique but in doing so Renshall injured her elbow and was forced to tap out as Agbegnenou secured the hold down.
This meant Renshall wasn’t able to come out for the bronze medal match and finished fifth at the Grand Prix.
Amy Livesey (-63kg) and Aaron Turner (-73kg) were also in action on day two. Livesey was up against Brazil’s 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Ketleyn Quadros in the first round. Livesey made a good start as she controlled the gripping exchanges but found herself thrown for ippon as Quadros got a hold of her for the first time.
Turner took on Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the first round with the Israeli coming in off the back of a bronze at the Paris Grand Slam two weeks ago. Turner however dominated the majority of the contest as Butbul struggled with the British judoka’s reach. Despite this Turner wasn’t to get a score on the board and the contest went into golden score. Butbul was finally able to get an opportunity as he countered an attempted attack by Turner to score waza-ari and win the contest.
Sunday sees Natalie Powell (-78kg), Max Stewart (-90kg) and Ben Fletcher (-100kg) in action. Follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live updates and build-up with a live stream via ippon.tv
