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.
Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, after she and German partner Mark Wallner defeated Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Briton Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets, despite temperatures exceeding 32°C in Paris, while Taiwan’s top men’s doubles player Ray Ho also reached the second round. Hsieh, who made it to the semi-finals in the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, and Wallner defeated Klepac and Glasspool 6-3, 7-5 in just more than an hour, converting three of five break points, while holding their opponents to just one conversion
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