Chelsie Giles (Coventry; Simon Moss) rounded off a fantastic 2022 by taking silver at the IJF Judo Masters on the opening day of competition in Jerusalem.
2022 has seen Giles add the European title and a World Championship silver medal to her 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medal.
Competing in the -52kg category, following an opening round bye, Giles defeated Katelyn Jarrell (USA) in Round 2. Giles countered a Jarrell attack for waza-ari score before transitioning into newaza to pin her opponent for ippon.
Giles faced a familiar opponent in the Quarter-Final as the contest was a repeat of the European Final as she faced Amandine Buchard (FRA).
Giles progressed to the Semi-Final after Buchard was disqualified via a handsoku-make for attacking against a straight arm.
In the Semi-Final, Giles faced fellow Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, Odette Giuffrida (ITA) for a place in the Final. With nothing between the pair, the contest entered Golden Score where Giles forced Giuffrida to the ground and deployed her trademark newaza to register a waza-ari score to progress to the Final.
-48kg Tokyo Olympic Champion, Distria Krasniqi (KOS), who has seamlessly stepped up to the -52kg category, stood between Giles and gold. The final started at 100mph with both fighters wanting to get the upper hand. Giles was caught in the opening 30-seconds for a waza-ari score – a score that remained the only difference between the two judoka as the 4-minutes elapsed.
The result saw Giles claim silver, her first medal at the World Masters and a fantastic way to round off what has been a stellar 2022 for the Coventry Judo Club judoka.
In the -57kg category, Lele Nairne (Bradley Stoke; Pete Douglas) defeated Jessica Lima (BRA) in the opening round. Nairne registered a waza-ari score as the contest entered the final minute before picking up a second shido with just 30-seconds remaining. Nairne defended against Lima attacks and in the closing seconds, countered an attack to register a second waza-ari score to win the contest.
Nairne booked her place in the Quarter-Finals after her opponent, Ozlem Yildiz (TUR), was awarded a handsoku make.
Nairne was defeated by Chen-Ling Lien (TPE) in the Quarter-Finals meaning she progressed to the Repechage to face Olympic Champion, Nora Gjakova (KOS). Nairne conceded a waza-ari as the contest entered the final 90-seconds before an uchi-mata by Gjakova registered an ippon score to progress to the bronze medal contest. The defeat saw Nairne finish in 7th on her Judo Masters debut.
Elsewhere in the -57kg category, Acelya Toprak (Metro JC/ Relentless Judo; Darren Hawney/ Fitzroy Davies) was defeated by 7th seed Mimi Huh (KOR) in her opening round contest.
Tomorrow sees Lucy Rensall (SKK; Pete Blood), Kelly Petersen-Pollard (Hardy Spicer; Fitzroy Davies) and Lachlan Moorhead (Sheffield JC; Matt Moorhead) in action.
Preliminary Round action starts at 09:00am (GMT) with Final Block scheduled to commence at 15:00.
You can watch all the action from the Judo Masters LIVE at live.ijf.org each day.
