The World Championships kicked off on Wednesday 26th August, with the -60kg, -66kg and -48kg contests where Ashley McKenzie, Colin Oates and Kimberley Renicks took to the mat.

The young Brit McKenzie (-60kg) had a tough draw for his first fight, facing Georgii Zantaraia of Ukraine. Zantaraia was quick to throw McKenzie for Ippon, winning the fight, and continued through to the final to take the gold medal.

Kimberley Renicks (-48kg) was drawn up against European Champion and Olympic silver medalist (Athens, 2004) Federique Jossinet of France. Jossinet threw Renicks to the mat for Ippon and advanced to the next round.

There was a close fight between Colin Oates (-66kg) and Niko-tapio Niemela of Finland. After a confident start from Oates, the fight went to the whole 5 minutes, with Niemela winning by a Waza-ari.

On an International front, never since the World Championships began in 1951 have so many leading fighters gone home without medals on the opening day of the biennial event.

Day two of the event brought much of the same for the GB Team. In action were GB’s Alex Farbon, Sophie Johnstone and Sarah Clark contested the -73kg, -52kg and -57kg weight categories.

Alex Farbon (-73kg) has been the only British player so far to win their first fight. Farbon beat Emanuel Moser of Liechtenstein in the first round by Ippon. This strong start put him in the second round to fight Kiyoshi Uematsu of Spain. The two players were well matched and the fight went to the full five minutes. Uematsu won the fight with a Yuko score.

Sophie Johnstone (-52kg) fought Beijing Olympic medalist Misato Nakamura of Japan in the second round, after a bye in the first round. The fight went to the full five minutes, but Johnstone lost by Waza-ari. Nakamura went on to beat four more players to win the gold medal.

Sarah Clark's (-57kg) fight also went to the full five minutes against Kaori Matsumoto of Japan. The close fight ended with Matsumoto winning by a Yuko.

Under the new repechage rules, players have to get to the quarter finals to be brought back in through the repechage. This is a big adjustment for players, as two years ago McKenzie and Johnstone, who lost to the gold medalist in their first fights, would have been brought back in to the competition.

The rest of the championships will see Euan Burton and Faith Pitman taking to the mat on Friday, fighting in the -81kg and -63kg categories.

Competing on Saturday in the -90kgweight category is Winston Gordon, Sally Conway in the -70kg and Samantha Lowe in the -78kg.

On the final day of competition, Peter Cousins will compete in the -100kg contest, Matthew Clempner in the +100kg and Karina Bryant in the +78kg.

Click on the video below to hear Peter Cousins talking about competing on Sunday.