Rio 2016 Olympic judo hopeful Natalie Powell won a stunning silver medal at the star-studded Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday while back at home her younger sister Kirsty took silver at the British Championships in Sheffield on Sunday.

Natalie Powell, 21, a Biomedical Science student at Cardiff University, needed just six seconds to defeat hometown judoka Habiba Almismary in the semi-final before agonisingly losing the final to Canadian Cathérine Roberge in the last five seconds of the contest.

The silver medal is a career-best and earned the -78kg fighter 120 world ranking points which moved her up to 31st place. 

At the British Championships younger sister Kirsty Powell, 18, who also hails from Irfon Judo Club in Builth Wells, emerged from a -57kg category featuring 13 of Britain’s finest talents to take a highly-impressive silver medal.

Natalie Powell said: “I was very happy to get my first Grand Prix medal but at the same time I made a few mistakes in the final which cost me the gold. I was over the moon for Kirsty getting her first national medal and she really deserved it.”