Sally Conway wins gold for Britain in Dusseldorf Grand Slam
- Published
Britain's Sally Conway claimed the gold medal in the women's -70kg on the first day of the Dusseldorf Grand Slam.
The 32-year-old Bristol-born Scot secured an arm lock against Miriam Butkereit in the final and forced her German opponent to submit.
For Conway it atoned for her previous meeting with Butkereit, which she lost at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam last year.
In the -63kg, Lulu Piovesana finished fifth after losing her bronze medal contest with Slovenia's Andreja Leski.
Conway, who won gold at the Paris Grand Slam last year, had twice been beaten by quarter-final opponent Maria Bernabeu but worked the Spaniard on to the mat in the opening 30 seconds and forced her opponent to submit.
Brazil's Ellen Santana was also forced into submission in the semi-final following an excellent transition into newaza.
Piovesana beat Olympic champion Tina Trstenjak to reach the quarter-finals, then saw off the Netherland's Sanne Vermeer before losing to Japan's world number seven Miku Tashiro.
Amy Livesey was beaten in her opening contest by China's Tingxian Yao, who won with a second waza-ari score.
In the men's -81kg event, Stuart McWatt beat Canada's Antoine Valois-Fortier in the opening round but was caught with osoto-gari and eliminated in Golden Score by world number eight Aslan Lappinagov of Russia in round two.