Announcements

ST HELENS judoka Lucy Renshall and Amy Livesey have been competing in the IJF World Championships in Budapest - as the pair battle to secure the one Team GB Olympic place in the -63kg category.

This is the last event before Tokyo selection and Renshall went into the games ahead of Livesey on the points leaderboard - with Livesey admitting that she would need a podium finish to qualify for the Games.

As it was Eccleston's Renshall went further in the competition, having defeated Spain's Isabel Puche (ESP) in Round 2 after an opening round bye. An ouchi gari waza-ari-awasete-ippon saw Renshall through to Round 3.

There she faced Slovenia's Andreja Leski in a real battle between two fighters at the top of their game.

World number five, Leski, claimed bronze at the Doha Masters at the start of the year, followed by two silver medals at the Tel Aviv and Tashkent Grand Slams, before taking bronze at the European Championships, whilst Renshall claimed gold at the Antalya Grand Slam.

There was nothing between the two fighters and as the contest reached the 10-minute mark, Renshall was unfortunately awarded a third penalty shido, handing victory to Leski.

Leski went all the way to the final where she lost to France's World ranked number 1 Clarisse Agbegnenou.

Meanwhile Livesey was defeated by Alexia Castilhos (BRA), a fighter ranked just two places behind her in the world rankings, in the opening round. Castilhos scored a waza-ari early in the contest before scoring a second waza-ari-awasete-ippon to progress to Round 2.

The pair both started off at the SKK club in Earlestown and are now based at the Judo Centre of Excellence in Walsall.

Official selection for the Tokyo games will be announced by the sport's governing body in due course on completion of the tournament in Budapest.