Japan, China and South Korea were neck-and-neck on the final day of Asian Games' judo competition with just four golds left to be decided.
Japan's meltdown in the first three days of competition in its native sport has left the field wide open, with the top three countries tied going into yesterday's competition at three golds apiece. Mongolia has two, and North Korea one.
Japan's team, riddled by injuries and absences, hit a new low on the judo mats on Monday, failing to win a single gold and competing in only two finals, where they were swiftly dispatched.
PHOTO: AFP
China's Xu Yan took only nine seconds to take down Aiko Sato, a four-time World Cup medalist, in the under-57kg class and Masahiro Takamatsu was thrown to defeat just 1 minute, 33 seconds into his bout against South Korea's Lee Won-hee, a gold medalist at the Athens Olympics, in the under-73kg division.
"I didn't expect to get the gold medal so quickly," Xu said, adding that she is already setting her sights on winning in Beijing.
Monday's competition also saw the first gold go to North Korea. An Kum-ae had Bundmaa Munkhbaatar on her back in the under-52kg division in 1:01 minutes to claim that honor.
Tsagaanbaatar Haskhbaatar picked up Mongolia's second gold of the games by defeating Iran's two-time world champion Arash Miresmaeili for the gold in the men's under-66kg.
"We Mongolians are off to a good start," he said.
The Japanese weren't celebrating, however.
Athens silver medalist Yuki Yokosawa, one of Japan's gold medal favorites heading into the competition, could only muster a bronze.
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