JUDO: Australia's judokas path to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has become a little tougher after the ten-strong team were unable to win a fight at the 2015 World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The tournament provided significant ranking points that count towards automatic Olympic qualification but the Aussies were unable to capitalise on the opportunity. 

Hannah Trotter was first up for Australia but she was ousted by eventual under-52kg semi-finalist Gulbadam Babamuratova of Turkmenistan by ippon 16 seconds into the encounter. 

In the under-63 divison Katharina Haecker was defeated in a close fight with North Korea's Song Hwa Kim while Aoife Couglan went out by ippon just over a minute into her under-70kg clash with Mexico's Andrea Poo.

After a first round bye, Miranda Giambelli was taken down by two waza-aris from Gabon's Sarah Myriam Mazouz in the under-77kg division.

Jake Bensted was Australia's first male athlete on the mat and he drew the toughest first round fight of the tournament, defending under-73kg world champion Riki Nakaya of Japan. Bensted lasted just over 90 seconds before going down to the eventual silver medallist. 

Eoin Coughlan was given a first round bye before going down to Portugal's Diogo Lima in a close clash that lasted the full five minutes.

Neither of Australia's two under-90kg athletes could fire as Sebastian Temesi was defeated by yuko by Chile's Rafael Romo while Diego Barreto committed four shido penalties to bow out after two and a half minutes.

Duke Dider lost via ippon in under a minute in the under-100kg division while London 2012 Olympian Jake Andrewartha was ousted by over-100kg opponent Jose Cuevas of Mexico.

Australia's representatives will now aim to climb the rankings in tournaments around the world before competing at the crucial 2016 Oceania Championships in April, 2016 in Canberra. 

Top 22 ranked male athletes and top 14 ranked female athletes qualify automatically for Rio 2016.

Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au