'I felt strong' - Lucy Renshall defeats Hungarian Szofi Ozbas to defend Antalya Grand Slam judo title
BySportsbeat
Updated 03/04/2022 at 18:13 GMT
Tokyo Olympian Lucy Renshall defeated Hungarian Szofi Ozbas in the final to win gold. "I'm really happy with today, I felt strong and comfortable throughout," said Renshall, who recently rose to No.2 in the IJF world rankings in the -63kg category. "It's an added bonus beating someone that has previously beaten me too."
Lucy Renshall of Great Britain, 26, finished fifth after losing the u63kg bronze medal contest to the 2021 European under 23 champion, Angelika Szymaska of Poland, 22, by a wazari (7 points) in extra-time during day 1 of the 2022 Paris Judo Grand Slam (5-
Image credit: Getty Images
Tokyo Olympian Lucy Renshall was delighted to live up to her billing as the top seed as she defended her Antalya Grand Slam title in style in Turkey.
The 26-year-old defeated Hungarian Szofi Ozbas, a Junior European and Junior World Champion, in the final to secure her fourth Grand Slam title at the scene of her first.
Renshall went a waza-ari score up as the contest reached the halfway point before fending off multiple late attacks from Ozbas to retain the crown she first won 12 months earlier.
And having gone into the event as the No. 1 seed in the -63kg category, Renshall said she was happy to see off a tricky opponent in the showpiece and justify her ranking.
"I'm really happy with today, I felt strong and comfortable throughout," said Renshall, who recently rose to No.2 in the IJF world rankings in the -63kg category,
"It's an added bonus beating someone that has previously beaten me too. This Grand Slam was very tough and going into the event as the No.1 seed was a huge confident boost for me."
Before the final, Renshall had eased her way through the preliminary rounds by defeating Mexico's Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz and Katarina Kristo of Croatia to reach the quarter-finals.
There she met recent Paris Grand Slam champion Barbara Timo but Renshall once again had too much for her Portuguese opponent, producing an ippon score to progress to the last four.
Her semi-final contest with Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard entered Golden Score where the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist was awarded a third shido to hand victory to Renshall.
And Renshall completed an impressive tournament with a dominant performance in the final to top the podium.
Meanwhile, fellow Tokyo Olympian Natalie Powell was in action a day later in the -78kg category but bowed out in the second round to Natascha Ausma after picking up a third shido.
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