A six strong British team will be in action at the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 October at the IPIC Arena in the UAE.
Abu Dhabi is the penultimate Grand Slam of the year and with up to 500 world ranking points available it’s a good opportunity to drive your way up the rankings.
On Friday 28 Kelly Edwards and Chelsie Giles will be fighting in the -52kg category. Edwards goes in off the back of a fine run of form which has seen her medal at her last four competitions including gold at the Glasgow European Open and bronze at the Zagreb Grand Prix. Giles meanwhile impressed in Glasgow, coming fifth including a win over World No 24 Karolina Pienkowska and will be making her Grand Slam debut in Abu Dhabi.
Edwards will face Jessica Pereira (BRA) first up while Giles will take on USA Rio Olympian Angelica Delgado if she gets past local judoka Sara Abdalla in the first round.
Lucy Renshall (-63kg) and Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70kg) will also be making their Grand Slam debuts a day later with both players having taken gold in the Glasgow European Open earlier this month. Renshall will take on Margaux Pinot (FRA) in her first contest and the French judoka goes into Abu Dhabi having won gold in both the Samsun and Almaty Grand Prix earlier this year as well as a bronze at the 2015 Paris Grand Slam.
Yeats-Brown is up against Brazil’s Barbara Timo, a former Grand Prix medallist, and she will be hoping to put in a strong performance ahead of the European Under-23s in November.
The final day of the competition sees Max Stewart (-90kg) and Philip Awiti-Alcaraz (-100kg) step onto the tatami. Stewart will be making his Grand Slam debut while Awiti-Alcaraz will be fighting in his first Grand Slam since Paris in February.
The -90kg fighter is in good form having won gold in Glasgow alongside a bronze in Zagreb. 2016 Junior European Championship bronze medallist Aurelien Diesse (FRA) will be his first round opponent. Awiti-Alcaraz last medalled at the Budapest Grand Prix in June and will face Brazil’s highly experienced former world champion Luciano Correa in the first round of matches.
British Judo Elite Performance Coach Kate Howey MBE said: “The draws are what you would expect for a Grand Slam so early on in the Tokyo cycle. We have a young team here looking to maximise points for the start of the qualification period.
“Although this is nearly two years away we want as a Performance team want as many players into the top 30 as possible for when it starts in May 2018.”
Competition starts at 0900 UK Time on both Friday and Saturday while Sunday’s start time is an hour earlier at 0800 UK Time.
Watch all the action live on ippon.tv and follow the British Judo Live Blog and Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.
