Chelsie Giles claimed Great Britain’s first medal of the Tokyo Olympics, winning bronze by defeating Switzerland’s Fabienne Kocher in the women’s -52kg judo. The 24-year-old from Coventry, who bagged her first grand slam gold medal in Israel earlier this year, overcame Macedonia’s Arbresha Rexhepi and Morocco’s Soumiya Iraoui to reach the quarter-final, where she was beaten by Japan’s Uta Abe. However, she was presented with another route to a podium place through the repechage and duly took it, downing Belgium’s Charline van Snick and then Kocher in their bronze medal match, both with Ippon finishes. Giles is currently ranked 10th in the world. The Olympics Judo tournament is being held at the Nippon Budokan, considered the the spiritual home of the sport. After securing the bronze medal, Giles said: “I believed I could do it, my coach has always believed I could and it showed in today’s performance. It feels very special to do it in Japan. It’s an amazing arena and the atmosphere was amazing. To do it where Japan started the sport, it makes it extra special.” It marked an uplift in fortunes for Team GB on the second full day of the Games, after Andy Murray pulled out of the men’s singles tennis through injury, and Jade Jones made a shock exit in her first bout as she defending her taekwondo Olympic title. Reflecting on her medal achievement, Giles said: “A small mistake cost me the match [in the quarter-final], but I was happy with the rest of the performance. Firstly, I’ll take a break and take a few weeks’ rest. I’m sure we’ll be back to training in no time.” Britain’s women, with Gemma Gibbons, Karina Bryant and Sally Conway, have won judo medals in the last three Olympics, but this is the first medal in this category since Sharon Rendle’s gold at Seoul in 1988. Giles had praise for friends and family, and for the sports organisers in the UK, saying that “It’s been really important to have the support of friends and family. When I’ve had not so good days, or it’s been hard to motivate myself, they’ve always had my back. Especially British Judo, UK Sport, these are people I couldn’t get here without.” Team GB are also guaranteed at least a silver medal after Bradly Sinden made the final of the men’s -68kg taekwondo where he faces Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan.