Natalie Greenhough to compete at Rio 2016

Great Britain’s Natalie Greenhough will compete in the visually impaired (VI) judo event at the 2016 Paralympic Games following the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) decision to suspend Russian athletes from the Games was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday.

Greenhough missed out on direct qualification for the Games originally but as a result of the IPC’s decision was offered an additional place in the -70kgs competition.

The Crawley judoka will be ParalympicsGB’s sole female representative in the VI Judo event with Jonathan Drane (-81kgs), Sam Ingram (-90kgs), Chris Skelley (-100kgs) and Jack Hodgson (+100kgs) already selected to compete in the men’s section.

Natalie Greenhough will step onto the mat in the Carioca Arena 3 on Saturday 10th August.

“I’m delighted that Natalie has been given the opportunity to compete in Rio”, said British Judo Paralympic Coach Ian Johns.

“She’s been working really hard recently with Paralympic Coach Denny Roberts, and is really excited to be joining the rest of the guys in Brazil”.

The judo event at the Paralympics runs from the 8th-10th September and you can follow all the action on our Rio 2016 Live Blog.