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.
PHOTO: AFP
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.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
A stunning Lamine Yamal strike on Thursday helped crown Barcelona La Liga champions with a 2-0 win over local rivals RCD Espanyol, with victory ensuring Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal took Hansi Flick’s side seven points clear of Los Blancos with two matches remaining, to clinch Barcelona’s 28th title and complete a superb domestic treble. Only the UEFA Champions League title escaped an exciting young Barca side this season, as they won the league for the second time in six years, at Espanyol’s ground again just as in 2022-2023. Back then,
Jannik Sinner on Thursday marched into the semi-finals of the Italian Open after destroying Casper Ruud in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, while Coco Gauff won a marathon three-set battle with China’s Zheng Qinwen to advance to the women’s singles final. American Gauff is to face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in today’s title match after pulling through 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. Ruud was supposed to be Sinner’s toughest test in Rome since he came back from his three-month doping ban, as the Norwegian came into the match in hot form on clay after winning in
RSS