British Powell qualifies for Rio after Masters bronze

British Natalie Powell is set to realise her Olympics dream in Rio this summer after collecting a bronze medal in the IJF World Masters in Mexico. Powell saw off the challenge of British rival, her room-mate for this event and London 2012 silver medallist Gemma Gibbons to effectively claim her place on the Great Britain Judo team that will travel to Brazil for the Olympics this August.

The 25-year-old defeated Gibbons during the competition in Guadalajara on her way to a podium position with Gibbons eventually finishing fifth. This allowed Powell to seal the spot in the one GB Olympics squad in the U78kg category after achieving more qualification points.

Powell and Gibbons both started the day well in the invite only event in Mexico. Powell took down Yalennis Castillo of Cuba while Gibbons dominated Spanish judoka Laia Talarn who in a scoreless contest was eventually disqualified.

With both judoka drawn in the same pool, an all British quarter-final was to ensue. Both players fought hard in a high energy contest, but it was Powell who took the win, throwing Gibbons for yuko before getting the hold down and taking the contest by ippon.

The Welsh woman moved into the semi-finals where she faced reigning Olympic champion Kayla Harrison. After a minute of even judo, Harrison launched an attack and threw Powell for ippon.

Meanwhile, Gibbons defeated Italian Assunta Galeone in the repechage final which meant the British pair both had medal chances in bronze medal contests with Powell facing Zhehui Zhang and Gibbons facing Guusje Steenhuis.

Gibbons was first to fight, facing the Dutch opponent who she had beaten for bronze at the Jeju Grand Prix at their last encounter in November 2015. It wasn’t to be for Gibbons, who lost out to the world number three by a single yuko and was forced to settle for a fifth place.

Powell faced China’s Zhehui Zhang in the second U78kg bronze medal contest. Powell started positive and after numerous attacks, Zhang couldn’t hold on any longer with Powell taking the spot on the podium.