Walsall's Emma Reid gives Olympic hopes a boost
Walsall’s Emma Reid gave her Paris Olympic hopes a boost with bronze at the penultimate judo Grand Slam of the qualification window.
The 28-year-old came through the repechage to take home her second Grand Slam medal at the Dushanbe Grand Slam in Tajikistan.
Reid’s first time on a Grand Slam podium was on the top step at Abu Dhabi 2021.
Competing on the final day, she entered the under-78kg competition seeded fourth, overcoming Karla Prodan in the opening round before defeat in the quarter-finals to team-mate and fifth seed Natalie Powell.
Reid progressed to the repechage when she defeated Iriskhon Kurbanbaeva before securing bronze with victory over Patricia Sampaio.
Team-mate Kelly Petersen-Pollard, who was in action on day two, secured her fourth career Grand Slam bronze medal after defeating Aina Laura Rasoanaivo-Razafy and Shokhista Nazarova to secure her place in the under-70kg quarter-finals.
Seventh seed Petersen-Pollard, from Birmingham, was defeated by number two seed Laura Cvjetko to progress to the repechage where victories against Luana Carvalho and Anka Pogacnik in the bronze medal contest, secured the Brit a place on the podium.
There were also fifth-place finishes for Natalie Powell and Jemima Yeats-Brown in the under-78kg and under-70kg categories respectively.
The final Grand Slam event will be the Kazakstan Grand Slam next week before the World Championships in Abu Dhabi the following week.
