Nunn and Doig Battle to Podium Finishes in Gori
May 11, 2026
Chloe Nunn and Sunny Doig both claimed podium finishes at the Gori Senior European Cup in Georgia at the weekend.
Nunn may not have fought internationally for six years, but showed no signs of rust as she powered her way to a Gold medal in the +78kg competition.
She swept past Azerbaijan’s Madina Kaisinova in her opening contest, registering ippon just over a minute into the fight courtesy of a hold down on the mat. Kazakhstan’s Karina Takiyeva provided a stiffer test of Nunn’s credentials. Takiyeva is a former Asian Junior Championships Bronze medalist from 2023, but the Brit progressed courtesy of two Yukos registered in the first two minutes. She showed her experience in the final half of the contest to keep Takiyeva at bay.
Nunn was pushed all the way again in the Gold medal contest against Tolkyn Tursynakynova, who came to Gori fresh off a Bronze medal picked up at the Dubrovnik Senior European Cup in March. It would again be a contest decided on Yuko with the Brit getting the decisive score and a well-deserved Gold medal to take back to Bishops Stortford.
Over in the -63kg competition, Sunny Doig (Just Judo Yoshin) earned her first medal since the Montreal Panamerican Open in November last year as she narrowly missed out on a maiden international Gold medal. 
She came up against Mariami Merkviladze (GEO) in the opening round, but displayed excellent newaza skills to keep Merkviladze down courtesy of a shiho-gatame to set up a second round contest against Italy’s Nicolle D Isanto.
The semi final went all the way to Golden Score with neither fighter able to take control of the contest, but it was Doig who registered an all-important waza-ari to earn her place in the final. She couldn’t find a way past Switzerland’s Chiara Friden in the final though but she will be delighted with her first medal of 2026.
Lewis Fryer (Rush Judo) made his comeback following 10 months away from international competition but fell to defeat at the hands of home favourite Toma Gelashvili in the opening round of the -66kg category.
Reuel O’Neal-Marshall (Ealing Judo Club) made his international debut but couldn’t mark it with a win as he lost his preliminary contest before being eliminated in the repechage in a tricky -73kg competition.
Elsewhere, over at the Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam, there were early exits for Max Gregory (-100kg) and Rachael Hawkes who were eliminated at the round of 32 and round of 16.
