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Asian Games: Japan hope to rebound in judo events

Japanese Judoka Midori Shintani, left, pushes Uzbek judoka Mariya Shekerova during their bronze medal final match in the women's over 78kg in the Asian Games at the Qatar Sports Club in Doha on Saturday. Shintani beat Shekerova by ippon. PHOTO: AFP

After a disappointing first day on the judo mats, Japan was hoping to dominate the gold in their native sport yesterday with two Athens Olympic champions scheduled to compete.

Japan, which has set its sights on winning most of the Asian Games' 16 judo gold medals, had two of its star wrestlers fall to defeat on the sport's opening day.

Midori Shintani, last year's open-weight world champion, was eliminated in the first round, paving the way for current world champion and the defending Asian Games gold medalist Tong Wen of China to cruise to the title. In men's competition, rising star Satoru Ishii, at 19 Japan's youngest national champion, was thrown to defeat by South Korea's Jang Sung-ho in the final bout.

Only two of Japan's eight Athens gold medalists are competing here, and yesterday both were scheduled to fight -- Masae Ueno in the women's 70kg division and Ayumi Tanimoto at 63kg.

Both were favored to win, but faced a tough field. Tanimoto's first opponent was Hong Kong's Cheung Wai-yi, and Ueno was to square off with Pak Ok-song of North Korea.

In the 90kg category, last year's world champion Hiroshi Izumi was expected to meet a stiff challenge from South Korea's Hwang Hee-tae, a former world champion. In the 81kg event, Takashi Ono, the bronze medalist at least year's world championships, was to fight Kwon Young-woo of South Korea.

Saturday's competition was not without its high points for the Japanese judoka.

Yasuyuki Muneta defended his gold from the 2002 Asian Games in Busan by outscoring Iranian giant Mohammad Reza Rodaki, who stands 2m tall, with one waza-ari and two yuko in the men's over-100kg class. Muneta is only the fourth judoka to defend his title at the games.

In women's, Sae Nakazawa, competing in her first Asian Games, won the under-78kg division.

"I was so happy that I won," she said after beating South Korea's Lee So-yeon in overtime. "In the beginning I was nervous, but then in overtime I concentrated and did well."

Jang, silver medalist at the 2002 Asian Games, threw Ishii to the mat 4 minutes and 49 seconds into their final bout for an ippon victory and the under-100kg gold. Ishii had trouble early on in the final bout, allowing the 192cm Jang to score a waza-ari before being thrown to defeat.
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