Disappointment for Great Britain in Judo World Cups

British athletes could not build on their Commonwealth success from last weekend as they left the judo World Cups in Bulgaria and Georgia empty-handed.

The Welsh competitors fell short of their targeted success, with British champion Brandon Dodge, from the Gower, eliminated at the first hurdle by Russian Sergey Krtyan in the men’s under-60kg at the Tbilisi tournament.

Commonwealth under-78kg champion Natalie Powell, who picked up gold in her division at last week’s competition at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, overcame Greece’s Vasiliki Lymperopoulou before being knocked out by Canadian Marylise Levesque – who narrowly missed out on a medal herself – in the women’s tournament in Sofia.

It will now take an impressive performance in the forthcoming World Cups in Hungary and Poland for Natalie, of Builth Wells in Powys, to earn qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games.

It was a disappointing weekend for all British athletes, with none making the final eight in any of the seven weight divisions in either the men’s or women’s tournament.

Hosts Georgia dominated the men’s event, picking up six golds, with Germany’s Dimitri Peters the other champion. Meanwhile, there was a more even split among the female champions in Bulgaria. Germany took home two golds, with China, France, Russia, South Korea and Tunisia picking up one each.