CHELSIE Giles claimed a silver medal at the Paris Grand Slam as the Coventry judoka produced a strong performance in her first event of 2024.
Competing for the first time since she won bronze at the European Championships in November, Giles entered the competition in Paris seeded third.
And after receiving an opening round bye, Giles saw off Cyprus’s Sofia Asvesta, Belgium’s Amber Ryheul and Mongolia’s Sosorbaram Lkhagvasureb to win her pool and progress to the semi-finals.
Giles showed her class to beat Spain’s Ariane Toro Soler in the last four to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Distria Krasniqi, from Kosovo, in the final.
In a closely contested final, Krasniqi registered a waza-ari in the final 90 seconds of the contest to take the lead with Giles forced to settle for silver, improving on her fifth-place finish at the event in 2022.
