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Rising youngster, Gemma
Howell, was the only Brit to contest the -57kg weight category.
Making her debut on
the World stage, the 20-year-old had a bye in the first round
and beat Jin-Sun Kim of South Korea in the second.
Much to the home crowd’s
disappointment, Howell then knocked out Japan’s no.2 Nae Udaka
in the third round. The Japanese judoka’s profile boasts a bronze
medal at the prestigious 2010 Paris Grand Slam and a silver medal
at the 2010 IJF Masters.
Howell scored a waza-ari
against the Japanese judoka, which was enough to win the fight
when the clock ran out. An impressive win for the World ranked
no.93.
Progressing to the second
round, Howell fought the World no.3 Sabrina Filzmoser of Austria.
The Austrian had won
her three previous fights by ippon, and managed to strike again
for a place in the semi-final.
Howell will now fight
it out through the repechage for a bronze medal, firstly against
Loulietta Boukouvala of Greece.
Fellow debutant Daniel
Williams had a tough draw in the first round as he came up against
the -73kg European Champion Volodymyr
Soroka of Ukraine.
The
Ukrainian threw the Brit for ippon to win the fight.
Elsewhere, in the -63kg
competition, Britain’s 2009 European silver medallist, Sarah Clark,
had a bye in the first round. The second round saw her contest
the host nation’s Miki Tanaka, the World ranked no.6.
Tanaka managed to score
a yuko and two waza-ari’s to secure a win, knocking Clark out
of the competition.
Faith Pitman fought
the -63kg World ranked no.9 Munkhzaya Tsedevsuren of Mongolia
in the first round. Her opponent has been making a name for herself
on the IJF World circuit with 5th places at the 2010 IJF Masters,
Tunis Grand Prix and Moscow Grand Slam.
Pitman, who is ranked
43 rd in the World, kept the pressure on and scored two waza-ari’s
for a win, progressing her to the second round against previous
World, European and Olympic medallist Elisabeth Willeboordse of
the Netherlands.
In this fight, Pitman
was unable to score and eventually lost by ippon.
Faith
Pitman at the 2010 World Championships
©
David Finch
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