CHELSIE Giles stormed to gold as the Coventry judoka topped the podium in the -52kg category at the Portugal Grand Prix in Almada.
The victory was Giles’ first International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Prix title of her career as the world number one added another gold to her medal collection.
Giles had previously won one silver and two bronze medals on the Grand Prix stage but finally landed the elusive gold with victory against Spaniard Estrella Lopez Sheriff in the final.
The Coventry Judo Club star registered an uchi-mata to throw her opponent for ippon score in the opening exchange of golden point to land gold against the former European Championship bronze medallist.
That came after Giles dispatched Spain’s Ana Perez Box in the semi-finals with arguably the ippon of the day as she produced a great change of direction to throw her opponent to the mat.
Giles faced Uzbekistan’s Sita Kadamboeva in the quarter-finals and won via ippon after she pinned her opponent with an osaekomi hold.
She was handed a first-round bye before she defeated Hungary’s Rebeka Keller in the second round with waza-ari and ippon scores and beat Portugal’s Maria Siderot in the third round with a trademark newaza.
Giles has previously won medals on the Olympic, World and European stage and became world number one in the -52kg category in October last year.
There was also success for Team GB’s Nekoda Smythe-Davis who won bronze in the -57kg category competing in her first Grand Prix event since 2019 following the birth of her daughter in 2021.
