Commonwealth Games 2022: Day 1 Round Up
An exciting first day for Team Scotland Judo as Finlay Allan claims Silver and Malin Wilson wins Bronze.
Finlay had an outstanding day at his debut Commonwealth Games fighting his way through the early rounds of the -66kg beating Mauro Nassone of Mozambique, Steven Mungandu of Zambia, Jasleen Saini of India in the semi-final to come up against Georgios Balarjishvili of Cyprus. The final proved to be a nail-biting performance and although a close match, Finlay missed out on Gold to take Silver.
Alex Short (-66kg) and Malin Wilson(-57kg), both made it into the bronze medal fights where they faced tough opponents in Northern Ireland’s Nathon Burns and England’s Lele Nairne.
Malin took Bronze, defeating England’s Lele Nairne in Golden Score. The road to bronze wasn’t easy for Malin after a first-round win, she was beaten by second seed England’s Acelya Toprak pushing her into the repechage where she defeated New Zealand’s Qona Christie which put her back in the running for a medal.
Alex had a strong start winning his first two fights but unfortunately lost out in the semi-finals to Georgios Balarjishvili of Cyprus, who would later win Gold. Heading for the bronze medal fight, unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for Alex as he lost out to Nothern Ireland’s Nathon Burns.
Meanwhile, it was a tough day in the -52kg category for Kirsty Marsh and Kimberley Renicks. Kirsty Marsh started the day with a win against Mariel Kalomor of Vanuatu but lost out in the quarter-finals to Kelly Deguchi of Canada. Moving into the repechage Kirsty faced Jacira Ferreira of Mozambique for a chance at bronze but was beaten ending her run at Birmingham 2022.
Kimberley Renicks returned to the Commonwealth Tatami in the -52kg facing Sofia Asvesta of Cyprus. In the sixth minute of Golden Score, Sofia secured a win putting Kim out of the running for a second Commonwealth title.
David Ferguson and Dylan Munro faced a hard day of competition in the -60kg category. With a bye in the first round, David faced Daniel Rabbitt of Wales but was unable to secure a win to progress.
Dylan had a fantastic first match against Sri Lanka’s Priyankara Wimukthi, however, was beaten by England’s Ashley McKenzie, who would later be crowned Commonwealth Champion, in the quarter-final. Moving into the repechage he faced Vijay Kumar Yadav but was unable to secure a win putting him out of the competition.
A massive congratulations to all Team Scotland Judoka for putting on a great performance.