World No. 1 judoka Yang Yung-wei on Thursday won the bronze medal at the World Judo Championships at the Humo Ice Dome in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, becoming the first Taiwanese man to win a medal in the history of the competition.
After receiving a bye in the first round of the extra-lightweight men’s under-60kg event, Yang defeated Britain’s Samuel Hall in the round-of-32 followed by Mongolia’s Sumiyabazar Enkhtaivan in the round-of-16.
Yang continued his winning streak in the quarter-finals when he took down Kazakhstan’s Yeldos Smetov, who won bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the same weight class.
Photo: AFP
At the Olympics, Yang made history for Taiwan by winning a silver medal after losing to Japanese judoka Naohisa Takato in the final.
Yang met Takato again in Thursday’s semi-final, with the same outcome, leaving him to fight Israel’s Yam Wolczak for the bronze medal.
By winning Yang became the first Taiwanese man to win a medal at the World Judo Championships.
The win also marked Yang’s 10th consecutive medal-winning competition since the 2020 Judo Grand Slam in Duesseldorf, Germany.
Prior to Yang, the only Taiwanese athlete to take home a medal was female judoka Chou Yu-ping, who won a bronze medal in the under-48kg category at the 1987 World Judo Championships in Essen, Germany.
Yang, who turned 25 last month, became a media sensation in Taiwan when he won the nation’s first-ever Olympic judo silver medal last year, with local media giving him the nickname “judo heartthrob” for his looks and athletic prowess.
His popularity skyrocketed when he ended last year as world No. 1 in the extra-lightweight class.
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