Young and Fryer shine on opening day at Zagreb Grand Prix
Six Great Britain judoka were in action on the opening day of the IJF Zagreb Grand Prix.
The -66kg category featured two British judoka making their Grand Prix debuts. Charlie Young just missed out on making the Quarter-Finals whilst Michael Fryer also gave a great account of himself.
Young defeated Ayoub Elidrissi (QAT) in Round 2, following an opening round bye. Young transitioning into newaza to pin his opponent for ippon score.
Young narrowly missed out on a place in the Quarter-Finals, Yashar Najafov (AZE) registered a waza-ari score in the closing seconds of the Round 3 contest to defeat the British youngster on his Grand Prix debut.
Fryer wasted no time in dispatching Leon Dapic (CRO) in his opening round contest. Transitioning into newaza, Fryer applied an armlock to force Dapic to tap out inside the opening 30-seconds of the contest.
Fryer was narrowly defeated in Round 2 by Shahboz Saidaburorov (TJK). Fryer dominated the contest from the opening exchange, but a single mistake saw Saidaburorov register a waza-ari score in the closing stages to progress.
Acelya Toprak suffered an opening round defeat to number 2 seed and current European Championship bronze medallist, Eteri Liparteliani (GEO) in Round 2, following an opening round bye. A waza-ari score for Liparteliani seeing her progress to the next round.
Dylan Munro (-60kg) was defeated after picking up a third shido in Golden Score in his Round 2 contest against number 1 seed and current European Champion Francisco Garrigos (ESP), following an opening round bye. Also competing in the -60kg category was Josh Giles, who also had an opening round bye before suffering a Golden Score defeat to Matheus Takati (BRA). A waza-ari score seeing the Brazilian judoka progress.
Amy Platten (-48kg) was defeated in her opening round contest against recent Tbilisi Grand Slam bronze medallist Katharina Tanzer (AUT). Tanzer registering a waza-ari score before pinning Platten for ippon score.
Tomorrow sees Jemima Yeats-Brown (-70kg), Eric Ham (-73kg), Daniel Powell (-73kg) and Lachlan Moorhead (-81kg) in action.
Also, action gets underway at the Winterthur European Cup and Paks European Junior Cup.
Action in Zagreb will start at 09:00 am (BST) with Final Block starting at 16:00 pm.
Action in Winterthur and Paks will start at 8am (BST) with Final Block to follow.
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