World Championships Preview

The World Championships start tomorrow morning with 7 British Judo fighters in action across the 8-day event.

The World Championships will be the final Olympic qualification event before the world ranking list is published on 28^th June and British Judo select the fighters that will compete for Team GB at the Tokyo Games.

All British Judo fighters will be looking for a positive final performance before the Games next month and know that a top 8 ranking come 28^th June will ensure they have a seeded position come the draw at the Olympic Games.

Since the team was initially announced, Natalie Powell has unfortunately withdrawn due to a minor injury.

Sunday 6^th (-60/-48kg)

Ashley McKenzie will face Younes Saddiki (MAR) in the opening round. Saddiki is a 3x African Championship bronze medallist, the most recent coming in March 2021.

The pair last met in 2019 in the 3^rd Round of the Marrakech Grand Prix, where McKenzie was the winner by ippon score.

Monday 7^th (-66/-52kg)

Cheslie Giles is seeded 3^rd and will face Charne Griesel (RSA) in the second round after an opening round bye.

Griesel recently won bronze at the African Championships to match her best performance at those championships.

Wednesday 9^th (-81/-63kg)

Amy Livesey will face Alexia Castilhos (BRA) in the opening round, a fighter who is ranked just 2 placed behind Livesey in the world rankings.

Castilhos recently finished 5^th at the Panamerican Championships. The pair have met on two previous occasions, the most recent being the Montreal Grand Prix in 2019 where Livesey defeated Castilhos in the Quarter-Finals.

Meanwhile, Lucy Renshall has an opening round bye and will face Isabel Puche (ESP) in Round 2.

The pair have met five times since 2018 with Renshall victorious on all five occasions. The most recent contest coming in the opening round of the Tel Aviv Grand Slam earlier this year.

Thursday 10^th (-90/-70kg)

Gemma Howell has an opening round bye and will face former World Championship silver medallist, Maria Perez (PUR) in Round 2. Perez is ranked just three places behind Howell in the world rankings and has finished 5^th and 7^th at the World Championships since her silver medal back in 2018.

Max Stewart will face Aleksejs Zarudnevs (LAT) in the opening round, Zarundnevs makes his senior World Championship debut having only recently stepped up to the senior level of competition. The victor will progress to face the 2018 World Championship bronze medallist, Kenta Nagasawa (JPN), in Round 2.

Saturday 12^th (+100/+78kg)

Sarah Adlington will face Sara Alvarez (ESP) in the opening round. Alvarez is ranked just 1 place behind Adlington in the world rankings.

Adlington defeated Alvarez in the bronze medal match at the 2019 Tashkent Grand Prix. Their only other previous encounter was at the Madrid European Open in 2018 where Adlington was again victorious.

Preliminary Rounds start at 09:00am (BST) with Final Block scheduled to commence at 16:00 (BST) on each competition day.

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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