Howell outfought Morgane Ribout of France in the third round before going on to lose to -57kg European Champion Corina Oana Caprioriu of Romania in the final.

The silver adds to the four European Cup medals the 20-year-old has won this year.

Howell, who now trains full time at the British Judo Performance Institute, said: "I am really happy with my performance.

"It is my first World Cup medal for a few years, so I am really pleased to come to the end of the year on a high.

"I am looking forward to the training camp now and, fingers crossed, I can also do well at the Tokyo Grand Slam."

Head coach Patrick Roux said: "Gemma once again put in a good performance and this is exactly what we are looking for at this stage in the Olympic cycle - consistency.

"She has made a dynamic improvement over the last year, which is impressive to see.

"We have encouraged our key players to use gap analysis and look at how they fight, which I think is working really well.

"We now need to keep the momentum going and on to the camp, which will be a good build-up to the Tokyo Grand Slam."