Astride Gneto marks best career performance in Abu Dhabi

2015 Junior European Champion Astride Gneto of France is taking the U52kg mantle from her older sister and London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Priscilla Gneto after striking Abu Dhabi Grand Slam gold on Friday.

There is an uncanny resemblance between Astride, 20, and Priscilla, 25, in terms of thier appearance, weight and style as the younger sibling achieved her first major honour as a senior fighter. Gneto junior came into the contest with a 2-0 head-to-head record over top seed and Rio 2016 Olympian Angelica Delgado (USA) and made a hat-trick today by throwing with a forceful osoto-makikomi for ippon. Astride will now hope to make herself the French number one at -52kg as Priscilla has deliberately vacated her U52kg position (with her sister in mind) to move up to -57kg where she will debut on Saturday at the Malaga European Cup.

In the first semi-final Delgado (USA) shaded London 2012 Olympian Kelly Edwards (GBR) - who won the Glasgow European Open a fortnight ago - by a single shido. In the second semi-final Zagreb Grand Prix winner Karolina Pienkowska (POL) lost out to Gneto by a shido in a scoreless contest as both semi-finals failed to produce a score.

The first bronze medal was clinched by El Salvador Pan American Open winner Jessica Pereira (BRA) who took her career into unchartered territory with a win against Pienkowska. The 22-year-old Brazilian tapped out her Polish opponent with a juji-gatame as Brazil continued to shine on day one. The second bronze medal was won by Edwards who defeated Junior European Championships bronze medallist Tihea Topolovec (CRO). The Grand Slam debutant from Croatia took Edwards the distance and into golden score for three minutes until she was penalised with a shido for passivity. Olympian Edwards improved on her Zagreb Grand Prix bronze with a new personal best and is making strides with every outing.