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On Thursday 9th September,
the 2010 World Championships began with the heavy weight and half
heavy weight categories, +100kg, -100kg, +78kg and -78kg, taking
to the mat.
For Karina Bryant in
the +78kg competition, the draw revealed she could come up against
the World no.1 Lucija Polavder (SLO) if they both won their first
fights.
Bryant fought Carola
Uilenhoed of the Netherlands in the first fight. The Dutch player
was a World bronze medallist in 2007 and both players are ranked
just out of the top 10 in the World.
The fight went to full
time, and Uilenhoed’s waza-ari point won her the fight, taking
Bryant out of the +78kg competition.
And to Slovenia’s surprise,
and in true judo style, Polavder went out first fight to Huanyuan
Lui of China, who is 20th on the World ranking list.
In the same category,
debutant Sarah Adlington came up against Ukraine’s Junior European
no.1 Iryna Kindzerska. The two have come up against each other
before at the 2010 Bucharest World Cup, where Adlington lost to
her in the semi-final.
After Bucharest, Adlington
had said, “I didn’t know Kindzerska was junior no.1 going into
the fight. She was a big girl, but not unbeatable.” But the youngster
got the better of the Brit once again, and sealed a win with an
ippon score.
Two more British judoka
made their debut on the World stage in the -78kg weight category.
Scarlett Woolcock, who
won a silver medal at the Slovenian World Cup earlier this year,
was stopped in her tracks by one the nation’s youngsters, Ana
Velensek, who took her out first fight.
Elsewhere in the -78kg
competition, Gemma Gibbons, like Scarlett, was not only making
her debut at a World Championships but also competing in the half
heavy weight for the first time, having previously competed at
-70kg.
Gibbons fought Anastasiia
Matrosova of the Ukraine in the first round, and struggled to
gain a point, finally losing by ippon.
In the men’s competition,
Britain fielded just one player in the -100kg, and that was 27-year-old
James Austin.
Austin made his debut
fighting against Kyrgyzstan’s Aleksei Taskin in the first round.
Taskin went a yuko up, but the Brit, who is ranked 83 rd in the
World, won the fight with an ippon score.
Progressing to the second
round, Austin faced Lukas Krpalek (CZE), ranked 11th in the World.
After a close five minutes, with little to show on the score board,
the Czech won the fight with a yuko point.
Competing tomorrow is
the Men's -90kg and -81kg and Women -70kg. Competition at 02:00am
GMT and finals begin at 09.30am GMT.
Check out the EJU's
round-up report here.
James
Austin throwing for ippon in his first fight
©
David Finch
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