Tokyo 2020: Team GB wins first medal with judo bronze

Chelsie Giles ended Team GB’s wait for a medal at Tokyo 2020 with a bronze in the women’s -52kg judo.

The 24-year-old athlete, from Coventry, defeated Switzerland’s Fabienne Kocher in the repechage to claim the medal.

Giles was knocked out of the tournament in the quarter finals of the pool stage by Uta Abe, the Japanese athlete who eventually won the gold medal – she had previously beaten Macedonia’s Arbresha Rexhepi and Morocco’s Soumiya Iraoui to set up the clash with Abe.

In the repechage round, Giles beat Belgium’s Charline van Snick to give herself a medal chance, and completed the job with a flawless victory over Kocher to claim the bronze, winning by ippon. An early scoring waza-ari gave Giles the advantage, and she never relinquished it, maintaining her composure to secure success.

Giles said: “I am shocked but very happy. I don’t know how to describe the feeling. A lot of hard work has gone into this from me and the rest of the team. There are a lot of thank yous to be done. My dad Jason is the person who got me into judo and take me into training sessions week after week. My brother is my training partner. He has been good this year and always supports me no matter if I have done well or not.

“The training in lockdown hasn’t been what we wanted it to be. But we made the best of it and it worked. I have built my confidence over this year and having this extra year has given me the time to focus on my judo. There has been a lot of stuff happening in the world. The judo has been the one thing that is constant. It is a really good experience to be part of Team GB. We go away with judo a lot but we are not with other sports. We don’t train with other sports.

“It is special to win it here. I love Japan, I love training here. We came here to the 2019 world championships and this is the same venue and I was excited to come back. It makes it extra special that this is where judo began. Is this the pinnacle? We will see. Maybe it’s the beginning. We will see where my training goes and see if I progress. Or if this is the top.”

Her bronze means Britain’s judo team have won a medal at each of the past three Olympics, following on from the bronze won by Sally Conway at Rio 2016 and the silver and bronze that Gemma Gibbons and Karina Bryant picked up at London 2012.