Bye for Lisa Kearney

Lisa Kearney has been given a bye from the opening elimination round of 32 meaning the Belfast girl is just two fights away from a semi-final berth and a medal at London next week.

The draw for the 48kg women’s judo category was made this morning and her first bout will be against China’s Shugen Wu, the current world number nine, just after 9.30am Saturday.

Kearney is Ireland’s first female competitor in judo at the Olympics and is ranked number 19 in the world at present. A victory against Wu will pitch Kearney against either world number three Sarah Menezes of Brazil or world number 12 Laetitia Payet of France.

Tomoko Fukumi, the red-hot favourite to land the gold medal in this division, will clash with Spain’s Oiano Blanco before facing Britain’s rank outsider Kelly Edwards.

Alina Alexandra Dumitru, reigning Olympic champion and eight-time European champion, begins her 2012 campaign against the winner of Dayaris Mestre Alvarez (Cuba) or Russia’s Nataliya Kondratyena.

It is thought that because of Kearney’s early start time on Saturday morning that she could leave the Games Opening Ceremony early on Friday night, or not take part at all.

Price guide:

4/11 Tomoko Fukumi

8/1 Alina Dumitru

8/1 Sarah Menezes

12/1 Charline van Snick

16/1 Eva Csernoviczki

22/1 Alexandra Podryadova

22/1 Birgit Ente

22/1 Ngoc Tu Van

22/1 Dayaris Mestre Alvarez

25/1 Shugen Wu

25/1 Urantsetseg Munkhbat

33/1 Jung-Yeon Chung

33/1 Laetitia Payet

33/1 Oiano Blanco

40/1 Nataliya Kondratyeva

66/1 Lisa Kearney

100/1 Kelly Edwards