DOB - 27 January 1979
COUNTRY - Great Britain
Weight- O78kg & Open

Karina Bryant is one of the UK’s most successful heavyweight female fighters. She is a 5 time world silver medallist and two time bronze medallist. She is also a four time European champion. Tall and strong, yet also skilful, Bryant’s repertoire of techniques include a powerful Tsuri-goshi, Tani-otoshi and Tsuri-komi-ashi. In 2003 Karina was voted European female judo player of the year and was in the Sunday Times top ten sportswomen of the year.

After a prolific judo career as a junior player, in which she won two Junior World Championships and one European Junior Championship, Karina Bryant made the tricky transition from junior to senior level judo almost effortlessly when she won her first senior European title in1998, in Oviedo, Spain. Considering the step up involved, especially in the O78kg division where the seniors tend to be much bigger in stature, Bryant’s victory here, at just the age of 19, was doubted by many. But when she faced the Spaniard Raquel Barrientos in the final, in front of the Spaniard’s home crowd, she silenced all doubters by countering Barrientos backwards for a clean ippon win.

The following year Bryant fought in her first senior World Championships in front of a home crowd in Birmingham, England. Having had a disappointing Europeans earlier that year, failing to defend her title, it was important for her to prove that she was more than a one hit wonder at senior level. She did not disappoint, throwing Harteveld (NED) for ippon with Tani-otoshi and beating Japan’s Miho Ninomiya by shido to reach the semi-final. There she could not make up the close to 50kg between herself and the giant Beata Maksymov of Poland. Despite the loss Karina sucked it up and went on to face Belgium’s Brigit Olivier for the bronze medal. Here, she found herself a waza-ari down and was forced to dig deep for the win. Eventually she managed to catch her opponent with a quick foot sweep for ippon and the bronze medal. She said afterwards, ‘I’m still in shock. The girls are a lot stronger, heavier and more physical at senior level so this is by far my best result’.

Though a great result given her age, more was to come from Karina as she went on take another European Gold in 2000. Bryant bulldozed her way to the final, beating all opponents en route with big throws. Having got there, she faced the reigning champion Irina Rodina from Russia. Against Rodina Bryant took a different approach, demonstrating her tactical judo brain by harassing the Russian into conceding a penalty for passivity. It may not have been flashy, but it still brought her a second European title.

The next year Bryant went to the World Championships with a good record under her belt. Despite having a slightly disappointing Europeans, in which she failed to defend her title and instead took bronze, Bryant was able to improve on her performance two years before and this time take a silver medal. Having narrowly missed out on a medal the day before in the O78kg category, she had a point to prove going into the open category the following day. However, she had a tough draw, facing Japan’s Mayumi Yamashita in the opening round. As it would happen she made short work of her, scoring ippon with Nidan-kosoto-gari. In the next round she ended up having to dig deep to beat an opponent who should have proved easier, Brazil’s Priscilla Marques. In the end she pulled a powerful Tsuri-goshi out of the bag to recover from a 2 yuko deficit. In the quarter-final she bullied her lighter Portuguese opponent, and eventually won by hansokumake. In the final she lost a tight fight against France’s Celine Lebrun with a shido being the deciding score. Still, she had improved on Birmingham and won her first world silver.

By comparison, 2002 was a disappointing year. Karina struggled through injury and bombed out early at the European championships missing out on selection for the Commonwealth games in Manchester. However, at the European Championships in 2003, she emphatically announced her return to form. She smashed her way through the preliminary rounds to face Russia’s Thea Dongouzachvili in the final. There, despite going a yuko down, she took her time and powered the Russian backwards for a clean Tani-otoshi ippon to win her third European title.

Later that year she went to Osaka, Japan, for her third World Championships. There she was able to improve on her previous performance and take a medal in each of her contested categories. On her first day of competition at O78kg, she blitzed past her first few opponents before facing 1996 Olympic champion, the incredible Fuming Sun. Unfortunately, the Chinese was too much for Bryant who eventually lost on penalties after a barrage of Sun attacks. Still, she came storming through the repechage to set up a bronze medal showdown with Cuba’s experienced Daima Beltran, twice World Champion. Beltran was a formidable opponent, but Bryant had a game plan. She secured her favourite grip and waited for the Cuban to attack, and when she did Bryant countered her backwards for a thumping Ko-soto-gake ippon to take the bronze medal.

In the open category Bryant was on form again. She quickly beat her first two opponents before securing a place in the semi-final with a sublime uchimata against Prokfyeva of the Ukraine. There she faced Beltran again. This time she didn’t wait for the Cuban to attack, instead smashing her over with a huge Khabarelli pick up for ippon to earn a place in the final. There she faced another Chinese opponent, in the form of the domineering Wen Tong. Tong proved too much for Bryant, who was eventually held down for ippon. Still, a medal in each category was a very good result.

In 2004, Bryant added another European medal to her growing collection, all be it a silver this time. This was followed by an incredibly disappointing Olympic games for Bryant. Only just back to form after struggling through injury Bryant came unstuck against Beltran, whom she’d beaten twice the year before in Osaka. Karina then suffered a shock defeat to Venezualan Geovana Blanco in the repechage to end her Olympic challenge.

The next year, in true Bryant style, she came back and took her fourth European gold, again beating Dongouzachvili in the final. Thus she went into the World Championships in Cairo with high hopes again. She did not disappoint and again improved on her previous Worlds, this time bringing home two silver medals. Again she lost out to China’s incredible Wen Tong in the O78kg final, whilst in the open final she lost to Japan’s Shintani. Still, Cairo took her total up to an incredible 4 silvers and 2 bronzes. Only the gold has eluded her.

After a disappointing few years, culminating in another premature Olympic exit, Bryant again proved that she can never be overlooked as a world class judoka when she won yet another silver medal at the 2009 Worlds in Rotterdam. She is currently recouperating after an operation on her hand and hopes to represent Great Britain again at the 2012 Olympic Games.