South Korean An Ba-ul claimed his first world title and Japan’s Misato Nakamura her third on the second day of the judo world championships in Astana on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old An, a gold medal winner at junior level in 2013, came out on top in the men’s 66kg with a golden score defeat of Russian Mikhail Pulyaev in the final.
Golan Pollack of Israel and Uzbek Rishod Sobirov took bronze.
Photo: AP
This was Pulyaev’s second successive silver medal at this level after his loss in last year’s final to Masashi Ebinuma of Japan in Chelyabinsk.
An, appearing at his first world championships, was winning South Korea’s first gold of this year’s championships after a couple of near misses on the opening day.
In the day’s other final, Nakamura exploited the absence of Kosovo’s Majlinda Kelmendi, the injured queen in the women’s 52kg division, to annex a third world title after 2009 and 2011.
The Tokyo-born judoka saw off Andreea Chitu of Romania with a penalty victory to add to her previous world 52kg titles, which she won in 2009 and 2011.
Brazil’s Erika Miranda and Darya Skrypnik of Belarus took bronze.
The 26-year-old Nakamura had also come away with an Olympic bronze from the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Like Pulyaev in the men Chitu once again had to settle for silver having filled the runner-up position 12 months ago.
Nakamura was winning Japan’s first gold of the year after an opening day which ended with a highest-placed silver picked up by Haruna Asami, beaten by Argentina’s Paula Pareto in the women’s 48kg division.
Yesterday’s third day features finals in the men’s 73kg and women’s 57kg divisions.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but