21st October 2019

Triple world champion Bianca Walkden and Lauren Williams, the reigning World Grand Slam gold medallist, have added more major medals to their collection.

Liverpudlian Walkden lost 3-2 in the last second of her World Grand Prix heavyweight final contest to Chinese rival, Shuyin Zheng.

The British star and world number one was leading for the majority of the nine-minute contest until caught by Zheng’s late strike.

Welsh star Williams also finished runner-up-this time at -67kg-and was left kicking herself rather than her opponent after some late colour confusion.

The 20-year-old reached the final in Bulgaria after Turkish opponent, Nur Tatar-trailing 12-7-withdrew through injury.

Fighting against Ivory Coast rival, Ruth Gbaghi, Williams trailed 25-20 going into the closing stages.

Unfortunately for the Newport born star, she assumed she was winning until the referee indicated otherwise.

“Never will I ever forget the colour of my body pad (hogu) again,” said the double former junior world champion.

“I fought in red all day until the final,” she explained. “In the last 20 seconds, it was 25-20 to red which I thought was me.

“So,  I stayed composed and tried to hold the ‘lead.’ That would have been a great idea if I was actually winning.

“So, imagine my surprise when I discovered I was actually blue. Who does that?

“I certainly would have gone for it for 20 seconds had I known I was actually losing. But at least I made it onto the podium.”