JUDO fighter Gemma Howell was controversially disqualified from her opening round clash in the women's under 63kg this morning.

Howell, who is from Wolverhampton but trains in Dartford, was up against reigning world and European champion Gevrise Emane of France.

There were boos from the ExCeL crowd when 21-year-old Howell was issued a warning for being passive with two minutes left.

With less than 30 seconds to go before golden score, the fighters fell to the ground, with video referees ruling that Howell had illegally grabbed her opponent's leg, and that meant she was automatically disqualified.

New rules were introduced in 2010.

Howell took up the sport at the age of eight when her dad took her to a Wolverhampton judo club. 

Three other north Kent judo fighters left the Olympics over the weekend.

Dartford's Ashley McKenzie and Gravesend's Kelly Edwards were the first British athletes to be eliminated from London 2012, after both losing to Japanese opponents.

Ashley, aged 23, was up against world number two Hiroaki Hiraoka in the under 60kg weight category, while 21-year-old Kelly lost to Tomoko Fukumi in the under 48kg weight division.

Sophie Cox, who is based in Dartford, bowed out of the women’s under 52kg on Sunday when she lost her opening bout to Ae An Kum of North Korea, the 2008 Olympic silver medallist.