Japan basked in pride yesterday as it celebrated a record gold medal haul in the judo competition at the Athens Olympics.
"Eight gold in judo, the most ever," blared the headline in the Nikkan Sports Newspaper, which featured a front page photo of Keiji Suzuki celebrating his title in the men's over-100 kilogram final against Russia's Tamerlan Tmenov.
Maki Tsukada also won gold Friday in the women's over-78 final for the nation that invented the sport.
Judo legend Yasuhiro Yamashita, a two-time gold medalist, says he knows the secret of the Japanese success.
"The reason for the supremacy of the Japanese team is that we have very good technique and not only power," Yamashita said. "We're not going to defend in a match, we try to make the points all the time and try to make an ippon" or takedown.
Japan's impressive run in the judo competition started on the first full day of competition when Ryoko Tani won gold in the women's 48-kg event, a win that prompted a congratulatory call from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan finished with eight golds and two silvers in the 14 judo events.
No other nation won more than one gold medal.
Other gold medal winners included Tadahiro Nomura, who won his third consecutive gold medal in the men's 60-kg, Masato Uchishiba, who won in the 66-kg class, and Japanese women Ayumi Tanimoto (63-kg), Noriko Anno (78-kg) and Masae Ueno (70-kg).
Eclipse
The eight golds in judo eclipses Japan's previous best of four at the 2000 Sydney Games as well as the 1984 Los Angeles Games, where only the men's competition was held.
The only blemish for Japan in judo was the shocking loss of defending champion Kosei Inoue in the men's 100-kg class.
Inoue, who was elected captain of the judo team, was heavily favored to take home another gold but was upset by Elco van Der Geest of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS