Tough day in Havana for British judoka
It was a tough day in Havana for British judoka as Megan Fletcher (-70kg), Patrick Dawson (-73kg) and Owen Livesey (-81kg) all lost in the early rounds at the Havana Grand Prix on Saturday 23 January.
Fletcher took on Roxane Taeymans (BEL) in her first contest and was unfortunate to be given a shido with less than thirty seconds to go. The British fighter was unable to come back and get the win.
In the -73kg category Patrick Dawson had an exciting first round contest with Jaromir Jezek (CZE) who scored three yukos before the British judoka pulled off a big waza-ari that gave him the lead and eventually the win. His next contest was against 2014 World bronze medallist Victor Scvortov (UAE) and the UAE judoka threw for ippon in the opening minute to secure his passage into the next round.
Owen Livesey was hoping to back up his impressive showing at the Jeju Grand Prix before Christmas and his aggressive judo was too much for Carloz Luz (POR) who conceded four shidos to give Livesey the win.
In the second round he took on the powerful Laszlo Csoknyai (HUN) and despite taking an early lead Livesey had no answer as the Hungarian produced a big throw for ippon.
Sunday will see Gemma Gibbons (-78kg), Natalie Powell (-78kg), Sarah Adlington (+78kg), Frazer Chamberlain (-90kg) and Ben Fletcher (-100kg) stepping onto the tatami.
Watch live on ippon.tv from 1355 GMT and follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live results updates
