Irakli Tsirekidze handed strife-torn Georgia a welcome boost by winning an emotional gold medal in the Olympic Games men’s 90kg judo competition yesterday.
Tsirekidze also had the added bonus of beating Russian opponent Ivan Pershin in the semi-final as he went on to add the Olympic crown to the world title he won last year.
Tsirekidze beat Amar Benikhlef of Algeria in the final by a single penalty, despite his adversary being unlucky not to register what seemed to be two valid scores.
Benikhlef, though, will not be too disappointed after becoming just the second person from his country to win an Olympic judo medal.
In the women’s 70kg category Japan’s Masae Ueno retained her Olympic title with a defeat of Cuba’s Anaysi Hernandez.
Ueno pinned her first three opponents before throwing Edith Bosch of the Netherlands with uchi-mata (inner thigh throw) in the semi-final. That was a repeat of the Athens final four years ago and the outcome was the same.
Hernandez’s path to the final was eased by reigning world champion Gevrise Emane of France falling at the first hurdle against Spain’s Leire Iglesias.
Iglesias then lost to Germany’s Annett Boehm who was in turn beaten by Hernandez in the semi.
But Hernandez seemed to freeze in the final and was caught early by a kochiki-taioshi (running leg-grab) attack from Ueno.
Bosch hit back to beat Iglesias for bronze while Ronda Rousey of the US took the other bronze.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB