Gemma Howell adds another bronze to her tally
Telford’s Gemma Howell became the first British judoka to win a medal on the IJF World Tour in 2018 with bronze at the Tunis Grand Prix.
This was Howell’s third Grand Prix medal at -70kg having moved up to that weight at the start of 2017.
The 350 world ranking points for winning bronze should also see Howell overtake Sally Conway as the highest ranked British judoka at -70kg.
Powell has impressed since moving up to the -70kg category, picking up bronze medals in the Antalya Grand Prix in Turkey, the Cancun Grand Prix and at the European Cup event in Saarbrucken, Germany.
Howell was in fine form from the start as she made short work of Russia’s Tatiana Kovalenko, winning her opening contest inside the first minute.
The British judoka threw Kovalenko for waza-ari in the opening exchange and followed that up in the next exchange as she threw her for ippon.
Japan’s Saki Niizoe was next up in the quarters and the Howell went behind early on by waza-ari. Despite her best effort she was not able to get a score back and dropped into the repechage.
There she faced Nurcan Yilmaz and the Turkish judoka proved to be a tricky customer. Eventually, though, Howell spotted an opportunity in newaza and executed a superb turnover to secure the hold down.
This booked Howell’s place in the bronze medal match where she took on Austria’s Michaela Polleres.
Howell controlled proceedings from the start as she dominated the gripping exchanges and put in a number of strong attacks. Polleres conceded an early shido for passivity as a result.
Despite being on the back foot, Polleres was still dangerous and did enough to keep Howell honest. But with 45 seconds left on the clock Howell took the lead as she threw Polleres for waza-ari.
The British judoka was able to win down the clock with Polleres pressing hard, with the Austrian coming close to scoring in the dying seconds.
Elite performance coach Jamie Johnson said: “Gemma fought well showing she can throw, her gripping was good and her newaza is top drawer.
“Her contest management was a lot better, which she has been working on. She did well to get another Grand Prix medal which can only give her confidence going into her next competition at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam next month.”
Frazer Chamberlain just missed out on a second medal for GB when he finished fifth in the -90kg judoka category.
