Romania’s Alina Dumitru won the first gold medal in the Olympic judo competition yesterday, stunning Japanese double gold medalist Ryoko Tani in the 48kg class semi-final and then flipping Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy to the mat in the final.
South Korea’s Choi Min-ho, who won bronze in Athens, threw all of his opponents to win the men’s 60kg division.
Tani, who had not been beaten in a major international competition since the Atlanta Games in 1996, saw her hopes of a third-straight gold evaporate when judges awarded penalties to Dumitru after both failed to show much aggression.
PHOTO: AP
Looking stunned, Tani fought desperately after the final penalty call, but with only seconds left had no time to mount an attack.
She defeated Russia’s Lyudmila Bogdanova for bronze.
An underdog, Choi completely dominated his competition and defeated Ludwig Paischer, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, just seconds into their final match.
But Tani, a seven-time world champion, was the surprise of the day.
Though she won her bronze decisively — throwing the tall Russian to the mat with 2 minutes, 33 seconds left in the five-minute bout — she had to go the distance with Sayaka Matsumoto of the US in her first bout, cautiously dominating the match and winning on points.
Silver medalist Bermoy, who won the 2005 world championship when Tani sat it out to have a baby, was making her Olympic debut. She had lost only four bouts this year.
Argentina’s Paula Pareto flipped North Korea’s Pak Ok-song at the buzzer to win the second bronze. The judges initially called Pak the winner, but then gave Pareto a waza ari, which put her ahead.
Paischer, who had been the men’s favorite, easily cruised into the second round after a first match ippon throw, setting up an early showdown with Britain’s Craig Fallon, the 2005 world champion.
Fallon defeated Paischer on his home turf for this year’s Vienna World Cup title, but Paischer got his revenge on Beijing’s mats by beating Fallon — who had blood dripping off his face — with two koka points.
Paischer next took a yuko win over North Korea’s Kim Kyong-jin to earn his spot in the semi-finals against France’s Dimitry Dragin, who is ranked 23rd in the world. He pinned Dragin just as time ran out.
The bronzes went to Uzbekistan’s Rishod Sobirov and Ruben Houkes of the Netherlands.
Japan’s Hiroaki Hiraoka, the Asian champion, crashed out in his first bout, losing on points to US entry Taraje Williams-Murray.
Luka Doncic on Monday produced a 46-point masterpiece as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped the Chicago Bulls’ four-game winning streak with a 129-118 victory on the road. Doncic rattled in eight three-pointers on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, finishing with seven rebounds and 11 assists to lead an impressive Lakers effort at the United Center. LeBron James chipped in with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Rui Hachimura delivered an eye-catching cameo off the bench with 23 points from nine-of-11 shooting. The win was another encouraging result for the Lakers after a 116-110 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. “We did
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
Juventus on Sunday dealt a huge blow to SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense with a 3-0 win in Turin which left the reigning champions nine points behind league leaders Inter, who are pulling away from the chasing pack. Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic netted in Turin as Juve, a revitalized team under Luciano Spalletti, moved into fourth with a statement win. Juve are fifth and one point behind both Napoli and AS Roma, who lifted themselves into third with a 1-1 draw with second-placed AC Milan in Rome. “We played really well and had fun ... today we were great,”
RSS