Yeats-Brown and Reid secure bronze medals at Kazakhstan Grand Slam

Last weekend, Jemima Yeats-Brown and Emma Reid both secured bronze medals in the final Grand Slam event of the Paris Olympic qualification period.

Yeats-Brown, who finished 5th at the Dushanbe Grand Slam the previous week, equalled her best Grand Slam result to win her third career Grand Slam bronze medal.

Competing in the -70kg category, Yeats-Brown overcame Assmaa Niang (MAR), Shokhista Nazarova (UZB) and Laerke Olsen (DEN) to top her pool and progress to the semi-finals. Defeat to Tais Pina (POR) progressed Yeats-Brown to the bronze medal contest where a ko-uchi-gari against Ekaterina Tokareva (KAZ) silenced the hopes of an expectant crowd.

The result saw Yeats-Brown move back into pole position in the race for -70kg Olympic selection ahead of the final event, the Abu Dhabi World Championships, starting this weekend.

Reid meanwhile won her second bronze medal in as many weeks as she added Kazakhstan Grand Slam bronze to the medal she won at the Dushanbe Grand Slam the previous week.

Reid had an opening-round bye before defeating Aleksandra Babintseva (AIN) to face Vanessa Chala (ECU) in the quarter-finals. Two waza-ari scores defeated Reid but she progressed to the repechage where she defeated Iriskhon Kurbanbaeva (UZB) to secure her place in the bronze medal contest.

Reid overcame Beata Pacur-Kloczko (POL) by a single waza-ari score to secure the bronze medal.

The judo action does not stop as the World Championships start on Sunday with nine GB judoka set to compete in their final Olympic qualification event ahead of the Paris Games.