Giles Progresses to Final Block on Olympic Debut
Chelsie Giles was in action this morning on the second day of the judo competition at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Seeded 7th, Giles eased through her opening two contests. It took less than 60-seconds for Giles to book her place in Round 2 with some excellent newaza to defeat Arbresha Rexhepi (MKD) via a sankaku-jime in the opening round.
Round 2 victory took a little longer – it took 90 seconds to defeat Soumiya Iraoui (MAR) to book her place in the Quarter-Finals. A kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame hold seeing her progress via ippon score to face home favourite Uta Abe (JPN).
Giles and Abe had only met on one previous occasion prior to today – at the Quarter-Final stage of the 2019 World Championships which were also staged at the Nippon Budokan.
The Quarter-Final was a cagy affair but Giles was narrowly defeated, a sumi-otoshi, for a waza-ari score, in the final 20-seconds of the contest enough to see Abe into the Semi-Finals
Giles progressed to the Repechage to face Charline Van Snick (BEL) for a chance to fight for bronze.
Final Block action, which will see the Semi-Finals and Repechage contests, is due to start at 9am (BST). Giles is the second contest so will fight around 9:05am.
