OLYMPIC silver medallist Gemma Gibbons won bronze medals for Great Britain at the International Judo Federation (IJF) Moscow Grand Slam.
The Charlton fighter was competing in the U78kg category at her first event since recovering from a broken wrist and began with victory by waza-ari over Russian Alana Kanteeva.
This set up a quarter-final against Marhinde Verkerk of the Netherlands in a rematch from their last-eight clash at London 2012.
However, this time, it was the Dutchwoman who prevailed by the narrowest of margins, 1-2 on shidos, sending Gibbons into the repechage.
But from then on, Gibbons was on top form, beating Ukranian Victoria Turks by ippon in her opening repechage contest before sealing the bronze medal by beating another Dutchwoman, Iris Lemmen, by two yukos.
She said: “Today wasn’t my best performance by far but considering I have been out for months and only back doing randori for three weeks, to take the bronze medal is good.
“It is my first Grand Slam medal so it’s also nice to now be a Grand Slam medallist.
“I’m glad I pushed to come back for this competition so I can now go into the world championships with some fights under my belt.”
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