Jemima Yeats Brown returns for the Tashkent Grand Slam
The International Judo Federation World Tour returns this weekend with Tashkent hosting a Grand Slam for the first time after successfully staging the Grand Prix.
Action at the Humo Arena starts on Friday 5th and runs until Sunday 7th March, with eight British Judo fighters in action.
The promotion to Grand Slam means that more Olympic qualification points are on offer in Tashkent, and as such the British Judo team will again be looking to build on the positive performances most recently seen at the Tel Aviv Grand Slam.
The Tashkent Grand Slam marks a welcome return to competition for Jemima Yeats-Brown, who suffered a knee and elbow injury whilst competing at the Budapest Grand Prix back in July 2019.
Friday 5th
The British Judo spotlight with solely be on Acelya Toprak, competing in the -57kg category, on the opening day of competition. The former European Championship silver medallist is making her Grand Slam debut in Tashkent. Toprak had a great start to the 2020 season winning silver medals at the Odivelas and Warsaw European Opens.
Toprak has an opening round bye and will face former World and European Championship bronze medallist, Helene Receveaux (FRA), in Round 2.
Saturday 6th
Amy Livesey and Lubjana Piovesana are both competing in the -63kg category. Livesey currently sits one world ranking place above British Judo teammate Lucy Renshall in the race to represent Team GB at the Olympic Games this summer in Tokyo.
This will be the 3rd time Livesey will compete in Tashkent where in 2019 she finished 7th. She enters the competition in 2021 seeded 7th and following an opening round bye, will face Parwin Askari (AFG) in Round 2.
Piovesana, who finished 7th at the 2019 Masters and has a career best Grand Slam finish of 5th, which she achieved in Dusseldorf in 2019, also has an opening bye. She will face Sappho Coban (GER) in Round 2. Coban, who previously contested the -57kg category, finished 5th at the European Games in Minsk back in 2019.
Now competing in the -70kg category, Yeats-Brown faces Taisia Kireeva (RUS) in the opening round. Kireeva is a former Grand Slam silver medallist.
Eric Ham (-73kg) makes his 4th career Grand Slam appearance and second appearance of the year in Tashkent.
Ham will face a familiar opponent in the opening round, Faye Njie (GAM). Njie, who is former African Championship bronze medallist, has been based at the University of Wolverhampton, training alongside the British Team, for a number of years.
Sunday 7th
Natalie Powell (-78kg) finished just outside the medals at the Doha Masters in January. At the 2019 Tashkent Grand Prix she won bronze and in 2015 won gold.
Powell enters Tashkent as the top seeded fighter and will face either Zarina Raifova (KAZ) or Iriskhon Kurbanbaeva (UZB) in Round 2, following an opening round bye.
In the -90kg category, Max Stewart will be competing in Tashkent for the first time and has career high Grand Slam finish of 5th, which came in Paris back in 2017.
Stewart has an opening round bye and will face the 2019 European Games silver medallist Li Kochman (ISR) in Round 2.
Sarah Adlington (+78kg) has great history in Tashkent, winning bronze on three previous occasions, the most recent in 2019.
Adlington faces Ivana Maranic (CRO) in the opening round, a fighter the Brit has defeated on their previous two contests.
Action on Friday starts at 04:00am (GMT) and 4:30am (GMT) on Saturday and Sunday.
Final Block is scheduled to commence at 13:00 (GMT) on all three competition days.
British Judo will bring you a recap of how all your British fighters perform each day and you can follow the action on the British Judo social media channels. You can also watch the action live on the British Judo homepage.
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