Natalie Powell was thrilled to step up her preparations for the Judo World Championships in September by winning her first Grand Slam silver medal at the Yekaterinburg Grand Slam in Russia.
Powell was beaten in the final of the -78kg category by world champion Mami Umeki of Japan.
Both judokas picked up a pair of shidos in the closely contest final but it was Umeki who managed to get a crucial lower arm lock which forced Powell to submit.
The defeat stretches Powell’s winless record against Umeki to seven contests but she was still upbeat about her progress in recent weeks.
“I’m really pleased to pick up another Grand Slam medal. It was great to see strategies I’ve been working on in training coming through into competition,” she said.
“I’m now looking forward to the final preparations for the World Championships in September now.”
Powell received a bye in the first round in Russia before beating world no.19 Karen Stevenson of the Netherlands with a countdown ippon victory to reach the semi-finals.
There the Welsh judoka met Anna Maria Wagner of Germany and it was an ippon which secured Powell’s place in her first Grand Slam final, much to the delight of her coach.
“Natalie fought well and some strategies that we have been working on have come off today,” said Powell’s coach, Kate Howey MBE.
“This weekend was about trying new things and there were some good results and this will help her going forward.”
Meanwhile, Amy Livesey feels she is getting stronger and stronger with every fight that comes her way after securing bronze on Saturday. The 23-year-old defeated home favourite Daria Davydova in the bronze-medal match, getting the better of an opponent 15 places higher in the rankings to secure GB Judo’s first medal of the competition. That was the last of a number of assured performances for Livesey in Russia, gradually getting her foothold as the day progressed – notably in the second round against Spaniard Cristina Cabana Perez. But it was against another Russian, Diana Dzhigaros, where her most impressive display came, beating the multiple Grand Slam medallist after switching up her tactics to unleash a ground choke. She was to miss out to world No. 8 Martyna Trajdos in the semi-finals, but that wasn’t enough to reduce the smile on Livesey’s face after a confidence-building day to launch the rest of her campaign. She said: “I’m really happy with my performance, I feel like I’m getting stronger with competition after my injury. This win will also push me up higher on the world rankings!” Coach Kate Howey added: “Amy fought well and was very composed in her approach to each contest. “This shows how much depth we have in the -63kgs with Amy picking up a bronze medal in a Grand Slam.”
Elsewhere, Ben Fletcher and Max Stewart both lost in their first matches in the -100kg and -90kg categories respectively.
Stewart was beaten by Brazilian Eduardo Bettoni despite being No.1 seed, while Fletcher was knocked out by Laurin Boehler of Austria. And on the women’s side, Kelly Edwards also suffered a disappointing first-round defeat. Sportsbeat 2017