IT was bronze for St Helens' Bekky Livesey at the 2016 Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia - winning her first Grand Prix medal.

Livesey (-57kg) was going into Zagreb on form having won silver at the Tallinn European Open two weeks previous. In her opening contest she beat Romania’s Stefania Adelina Dobre for the first time, having previously lost to her at Junior level, scoring three yukos with some dominant all-round judo.

In the quarter-final she was too strong for top seed Manon Durbach (LUX) scoring for waza-ari early on with a nice uchi-mata before seeing out the rest of the contest without any worries.

Lola Benarroche (FRA) was too strong in the semi-final as she threw Livesey for waza-ari before securing the hold down to take the contest.

Germany’s Johanna Mueller would contest the British judoka for bronze and despite having the edge in experience, and ranking, it was Livesey who looked more comfortable, twice countering for waza-ari scores to give her first podium finish at Grand Prix level.