Team GB's Lucy Renshall suffers 'cruel' defeat in second round of -63kg judo as Slovenia and Japan win gold
Updated 30/07/2024 at 18:12 GMT+1
Great Britain’s Lucy Renshall won her opening contest in the women's -63kg judo at the Paris Olympics but was then eliminated in the second round. World No. 11 Renshall lost to world No. 10 Lubjana Piovesana, who competed for Team GB until January 2023, when she switched to Austria. Slovenia and Japan went on to win gold later on Tuesday, but there was disappointment for hosts France.
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Great Britain’s Lucy Renshall was eliminated in the last 16 of the women’s -63kg judo at the Paris Olympic Games.
World No. 11 Renshall won her opening contest against world No. 5 Katharina Haecker but was then beaten by Austria’s Lubjana Piovesana, who is ranked 10th in the world.
Renshall was eliminated in the ‘golden score’ period, the same fate that befell fellow Brit Chelsie Giles in the women's -52kg class on Sunday.
Renshall and Piovesana were scoreless after four minutes.
But just 34 seconds into the ‘golden score’ period, Piovesana, who competed for Team GB until January 2023 when she switched to Austria, landed a waza-ari to advance into the quarter-finals.
"Judo is such a cruel sport," Renshall told the BBC.
"The last 12 weeks have probably been the best 12 weeks of training I’ve done before. I felt like I had more to give."
On losing to Piovesana, who used to be part of the GB set-up, Renshall added: "I think that’s what happens when you fight someone so regularly and you know someone so well, it’s quite a rubbish fight because you know each other so well.
"She was the better player on the day."
Renshall was also pushed the distance in her opening contest against Australia’s Haecker.
Haecker was the first to score with a waza-ari but Renshall soon responded to level at 1-1.
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There was nothing to separate the fighters after four minutes so it was went to ‘golden score’.
A tense contest saw Haecker appear to tire as she joined Renshall on two shidos. With a third shido ending the match, it was Haecker who received it to give Renshall the win.
Agbegnenou shocked, Leski and Takanori take gold
Later in the competition, France's reigning Olympic champion Clarisse Agbegnenou suffered a shock semi-final defeat to Slovenian Andreja Leski, who scored a waza-ari with 15 seconds to go to win it.
The six-time world champion went on to seal bronze, as did Kosovo's Laura Fazliu, while it became a dream Olympics for Leski as she defeated Mexican Prisca Awiti Alcaraz to take women's -63kg gold.
In the men's -81kg, Japan's Nagase Takanori won a second consecutive Olympic gold medal, defeating world champion Tato Grigalashvili of Georgia with a Waza-ari and Ippon.
Somon Makhmadbekov won Tajikistan's first Olympic medal in any sport since 2016 by claiming bronze, while Lee Joonhwan of South Korea took the other bronze.
GB’s Jemima Yeats-Brown makes her Olympic debut in the women’s -70kg competition on Wednesday, while Emma Reid is in action on Thursday in the women’s -78kg.
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