Experienced Junxia Yang takes gold in The Hague

Chinese judoka Yang Junxia handed her country their first gold medal in The Hague after the hosts of the upcoming World Judo Masters had earned two silver medals on day one. British veteran Alice Schlesinger was unable to resist the turnover into osaekomi that Yang had used in all four of her previous contests as the world number 61 won her third Grand Prix title and her first outside of Asia.

In the first semi-final Former World Judo Masters bronze medallist Yang held down former Junior World Championships silver medallist Stefania Adelina Dobre (ROU) for 15 seconds and the Romanian elected to tap out. In the second semi-final Glasgow European Open winner Maelle Di Cintio (FRA) lost out to Schlesinger after 68 seconds of golden score by a waza-ari score.

The first bronze medal contest was won by two-time Kodokan Cup winner Doi Masako (JPN) who brushed aside Di Cintio. Grand Prix debutant Doi scored a waza-ari from osaekomi before countering a drop technique from the Frenchwoman with te-waza to take the first contest in the final block.

The second bronze medal was won by Cancun Grand Prix bronze medallist Amy Livesey (GBR) over Dobre. SKK Judo Club product Livesey rolled Dobre over for a waza-ari after the Romanian failed with a uchi-mata attempt and added a second waza-ari to take a crucial result as she plots a late invitation to the World Judo Masters in December.