It was a tough morning for our -70kg judoka on day 5 of the IJF World Championships.

Making her World Championship debut, Kelly Petersen-Pollard (Hardy Spicer 83; Fitzroy Davies) was defeated in her opening contest. Petersen-Pollard faced Gulnoza Matniyazova (UZB) in Round 2 following an opening-round bye.

With 8-minutes of the contest elapsed and having just picked up a 2^nd penalty shido, Petersen-Pollard was judged to have stepped out of the competition area and was awarded a third shido, handing victory, and a place in the next round, to her opponent.

 Jemima Yeats-Brown (Ryecroft; Ian Oliver) had an opening round walk-over after her opponent, Nigara Shaheen (IRT), failed to show. This saw Yeats-Brown progress straight to Round 2 to face 2^nd seed and Olympic bronze medallist, Sanne Van Dijke (NED).

With 60seconds of the contest elapsed, Van Dijke registered a waza-ari score before securing victory with a hip throw for ippon score in the final minute.

Tomorrow is the penultimate day of competition at the World Championships with Natalie Powell (Irfon JC; Mark Earl) and Emma Reid (Redbridge JC; Steve Sandy) competing in the -78kg category.

2017 World Championship bronze medallist Powell makes her 7^th appearance on the Word Championship stage whilst Reid will be making her World Championship debut in Tashkent.

Both Powell and Reid have opening round byes and will enter the competition in Round 2. Powell, drawn in Pool B, will face Hafsa Yatim (MAR) whilst Reid, who is drawn in Pool C, will face Zhenzhao Ma (CHN).