Camberley had 3 fighters at this Grand Prix event. Self funding yet another competition in this busy phase of Olympic preparation events was Sophie Johnstone in the -52kg, under pressure to gain valuable world ranking points. She faced Marie Muller from Luxembourg ranked no 17 on the world ranking list first, Sophie was unable to progress any further in the competition losing to the Luxembourg fighter.
Matt Clempner was our only male, competing in the +100kg, he had a bye and then drew Brazilain fighter Rafael Silva ranked number 8 in the World. He lost to the Brazilian and was out of the tournament.
Our last chance of glory lay with Karina Bryant our +78kg competitor. 1st to fall victim to our CJC warrior was Italian Lucia Tangorre, next Bryant faced long term rival Konitz of Germany. Karina looked a class or two above her and twice as strong, throwing her with a massive ura-nage for ippon. Things were looking very positive and she now faced world number 2 Qian Quin from China in the semi final. A very close fight and in her opinion, Karina felt it was the best performance against this particular fighter as yet. Although she didn’t win this fight, there were some very positive points to take from the day, some vital world ranking points in the bag again and a bronze medal! Well done.
