Giles continues fine form with maiden World Championship medal

British judoka Chelsie Giles continued her excellent year on the mat with silver in the World Judo Championships in Tashkent. Giles was defeated by Japan's Uta Abe in the -52kg gold medal fight after powering through the earlier rounds but adds a first World Championship medal to the European gold she won earlier in the year in Sofia. Ad Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Abe scored the crucial waza-ari after one minute and 40 seconds and Giles was unable to respond despite a number of attempted throws.

JudoNeumann looking to replicate judo legend Ono05/10/2022 AT 16:25 And despite narrowly missing out on a first world gold, 25-year-old Giles was overjoyed with silver. «I am so happy to be a World medallist,» said Giles. «It feels like a dream.

»I started the day a bit slow but as the competition progressed my confidence grew, and my performances got better and better. «To face two Olympic champions along the way shows how strong the field was today, thank you to my coaches and team I couldn't have done it without them.» Giles produced an ippon in both of her first two fights to overcome China's Liping Liu and USA's Katelyn Jarrell before two waza-aris in two minutes against Poland's Aleksandra Kaleta proved enough to progress to the semi-finals. The 25-year-old then secured herself a medal with a hard-fought victory against Kosovan judoka Distria Krasniqi.

The pair could not be separated after the regulation four minutes, with Olympic bronze medallist Giles producing a golden score one minute and 19 seconds into overtime. Giles then battled hard against Abe, who now has three -52kg World Judo Championship golds to her name, having also claimed the title in 2018 and 2019. The silver completes a successful year for Giles, who