Chelsie Giles ends 2022 with Masters silver

Chelsie Giles (Coventry; Simon Moss) rounded off a fantastic 2022 by taking silver at the IJF Judo Masters on the opening day of competition in Jerusalem.

2022 has seen Giles add the European title and a World Championship silver medal to her 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medal.

Competing in the -52kg category, following an opening round bye, Giles defeated Katelyn Jarrell (USA) in Round 2. Giles countered a Jarrell attack for waza-ari score before transitioning into newaza to pin her opponent for ippon.

Giles faced a familiar opponent in the Quarter-Final as the contest was a repeat of the European Final as she faced Amandine Buchard (FRA).

Giles progressed to the Semi-Final after Buchard was disqualified via a handsoku-make for attacking against a straight arm.

In the Semi-Final, Giles faced fellow Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, Odette Giuffrida (ITA) for a place in the Final. With nothing between the pair, the contest entered Golden Score where Giles forced Giuffrida to the ground and deployed her trademark newaza to register a waza-ari score to progress to the Final.

-48kg Tokyo Olympic Champion, Distria Krasniqi (KOS), who has seamlessly stepped up to the -52kg category, stood between Giles and gold. The final started at 100mph with both fighters wanting to get the upper hand. Giles was caught in the opening 30-seconds for a waza-ari score – a score that remained the only difference between the two judoka as the 4-minutes elapsed.

The result saw Giles claim silver, her first medal at the World Masters and a fantastic way to round off what has been a stellar 2022 for the Coventry Judo Club judoka.

Reflecting on her year, Giles said:

“I am so happy to finish the year with a Masters silver medal. I am believing and trusting in my abilities more and more, and it’s showing in my performances. At the start of the year, I wouldn’t have believed I would become European champion and World silver medallist. I want to thank all my coaches and everybody that has supported me to get to this point.”

In the -57kg category, Lele Nairne (Bradley Stoke; Pete Douglas) defeated Jessica Lima (BRA) in the opening round. Nairne registered a waza-ari score as the contest entered the final minute before picking up a second shido with just 30-seconds remaining. Nairne defended against Lima attacks and in the closing seconds, countered an attack to register a second waza-ari score to win the contest.

Nairne booked her place in the Quarter-Finals after her opponent, Ozlem Yildiz (TUR), was awarded a handsoku make.

Nairne was defeated by Chen-Ling Lien (TPE) in the Quarter-Finals meaning she progressed to the Repechage to face Olympic Champion, Nora Gjakova (KOS). Nairne conceded a waza-ari as the contest entered the final 90-seconds before an uchi-mata by Gjakova registered an ippon score to progress to the bronze medal contest. The defeat saw Nairne finish in 7^th on her Judo Masters debut.

Elsewhere in the -57kg category, Acelya Toprak (Metro JC/ Relentless Judo; Darren Hawney/ Fitzroy Davies) was defeated by 7^th seed Mimi Huh (KOR) in her opening round contest.

Tomorrow sees Lucy Rensall (SKK; Pete Blood), Kelly Petersen-Pollard (Hardy Spicer; Fitzroy Davies) and Lachlan Moorhead (Sheffield JC; Matt Moorhead) in action.

Preliminary Round action starts at 09:00am (GMT) with Final Block scheduled to commence at 15:00.

You can watch all the action from the Judo Masters LIVE at live.ijf.org each day.

Watch out for further news from British Judo by checking out our latest news section. You can also catch up via our official social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.