Colin Oates (-66kg) finished a consistent year on the international circuit with seventh place at the Tokyo Grand Slam on Friday 4 December.

After receiving a bye in the first round Oates took on Jesus Chaparro of Mexico and despite being two shidos to one down he was able to score for ippon after securing the hold down and move into the third round where he faced Iraq’s Mohammed Alsaedi.

In the end it came down to shidos with the Iraqi judoka scoring three to Oates’ one. The British judoka took on Sho Tateyama (JPN) in the quarter-final and the Japanese athlete produced a nice bit of judo to catch Oates for ippon three minutes into the contest.

Things wouldn’t get any easier in the repechage as he faced World number three Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj (MGL). It was another contest that came down to shidos however this time it was the British competitor who lost out by three shidos to two.

Looking back on the day Elite Performance Coach Jean-Paul Bell said: “Colin has performed well this year and finished seventh today. Not the result he wanted and had a tough close fight with the Mongolian World number three in the repechage.

“Overall it’s been a good year and he finishes in the top ten on the World Ranking List and in direct qualification.”

Ashley McKenzie (-60kg) was also in action on Friday however he went out in his opening contest to Cuba’s Yandry Torres Marimon. The contest was tied on shidos and went to golden score with the Cuban judoka scoring for ippon a minute later.

Jeju Grand Prix gold medallist Sally Conway (-70kg) will be in action on Saturday as she faces the winner of Yoko Ono (JPN) versus Ye-Sul Hwang (KOR) and continues her push for a top eight ranking in the Olympic qualifying race. Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) will be up against Maricet Espinosa (CUB) as she looks to end a very consistent year on the international circuit with a good result.

Watch all the action live on ippon.tv from 12.30am GMT and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter from 7am for live updates on British competitors in the final block.