Seventh place for Davis at IJF World Judo Masters
Nekoda Davis was Britain’s top performer on day one of the IJF World Judo Masters in Mexico, finishing in seventh place. The IJF World Judo Masters is the final Rio 2016 Olympic qualification opportunity, and features the world’s best competing on an invite-only basis.
Davis was joined in action today by Colin Oates (-66kg) and Ashley McKenzie (-60kg), who were unable to make it past their first round contests.
Germany’s Miryam Roper was Davis’ first opponent in the -57kg category. Davis started strong and forced the submission from Roper after just over a minute and a half on the tatami. This result set up a quarter-final against world number one, Sumiya Dorjsuren (MGL). It was a closely fought contest that finished with both judoka two shidos (penalties) down, sending the contest to golden score.
Despite positive judo from Davis, Dorjsuren was the eventual winner, throwing for a waza-ari score to send the Brit into the repechage contest.
More attacking judo was on show from Davis in the repechage contest, facing Hungarian Hedvig Karakas. The contest again went to golden score with both players a shido a piece after four minutes. It was a final shido awarded against Davis after a minute of golden score which saw her finish in seventh place.
Two British judoka are in action tomorrow, Alice Schlesinger (-63kg) and Sally Conway (-70kg). The preliminary rounds begin at 17:00 (BST) and can be watched live on ippon.tv
Follow the action live with @BritishJudo on twitter and send your support to the team using #WeAreGBJudo.