Hashimoto claims Japan 5th gold
Kelmendi upset
Soichi Hashimoto won Japan’s fifth gold medal of the judo world championships in Budapest on Wednesday, although Mongolian Sumiya Dorjsuren ended their total monopoly of the winners list.
In the absence of Olympic champion Shohei Ono, Hashimoto followed in his compatriot’s footsteps by beating Azeri Rustam Orujov in the men’s lightweight final, as Ono had done last summer in Rio.
JUDO
Having swept all four gold medals over the first two days in Hungary, Japan’s perfect record was ended as Olympic silver medallist Sumiya beat Tsukasa Yoshida in the women’s lightweight final.
The 26-year-old Sumiya, also a three-time sambo world champion, edged to victory in a tense fight.
Rafaela Silva, who won Brazil’s first gold at their home Games last year by beating Sumiya, was stunned in her first match by Portugal’s Olympic bronze medallist Telma Monteiro.
Judo world championship medallists on Wednesday:
Men
-73kg 1. Soichi Hashimoto (JPN) 2. Rustam Orujov (AZE) 3. An Chang-rim (KOR), Odbayar Ganbaataryn (MGL)
Women
-57kg 1. Sumiya Dorjsuren (MGL) 2. Tsukasa Yoshida (JPN) 3. Helene Receveaux (FRA), Nekoda Smythe-Davis (GBR)
Hifumi Abe and Ai Shishime claimed gold medals on Tuesday as Japan continued their domination of the 2017 world judo championships in Budapest.
Abe, 20, beat Russia’s Mikhail
in the half-lightweight final, after Shishime had beaten compatriot Natsumi Tsunoda in the women’s category to give Japan their fourth title from the opening two days’ four finals.
After struggling with injury and failing to qualify for last year’s Rio Olympics, Abe has rebuilt his career and is already expected to be one of the favourites for Tokyo gold in 2020.
The biggest shock of the day came in the women’s -52kg event, as Shishime inflicted a first defeat in almost two years on reigning Olympic champion Majlinda Kelmendi of Kosovo.
In the final, she comfortably beat
Tsunoda, who settled for her country’s first silver medal of the championships, leaving Japan top of the medals table with four golds, one silver and a bronze.
Men
-66kg 1. Hifumi Abe (JPN) 2. Mikhailo Pulyaev (RUS) 3. Vazha Margvelashvili (GEO), Tal Flicker (ISR)
Women
-52kg 1. Ai Shishime (JPN) 2. Natsumi Tsunoda (JPN) 3. Natalia Kuziutina (RUS), Erika Miranda (BRA) es in France and most of Europe.
Mbappe’s Monaco and France colleague Thomas Lemar, the subject of interest from Liverpool, is another who has been making headlines this week. However, France captain Hugo Lloris played down suggestions that any transfer talk is causing minds to wander.
Left out of the Monaco side in recent weeks, Mbappe may not start the match, while Ousmane Dembele was not included in the squad due to the distraction of his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona.
Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman could therefore be recalled for this potentially decisive encounter, with only three more qualifiers to follow and both sides’ hopes of making it to next year’s finals in Russia on the line.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands are three points further back in third, so a defeat in Paris and a win for Sweden in Bulgaria at the same time could be fatal to their chances.
That would be a terrible blow for the Dutch, who came third in the World Cup in Brazil but followed that up by failing to qualify for Euro 2016 in France and are still trying to recover from that setback.
The Dutch lost 1-0 at home to France last October and a 2-0 defeat in Bulgaria in March cost coach Danny Blind his job.
Germany midfielder Sami Khedira will miss their World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic on Friday due to a knee injury, the team said on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old missed the world champions’ morning training session and, after undergoing medical checks, was ruled out for their Group C qualifier.
Khedira will remain in Stuttgart for treatment ahead of Germany’s second qualifier against Norway on Monday.
Chelsea winger Eden Hazard will make his first appearance of the season in Belgium’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar on Thursday after recovering from a fractured ankle.
The 26-year-old has been out of first-team action since the start of June, but did play 74 minutes for the Chelsea under-23 side last week.
“It’s been three weeks since I rejoined the squad at Chelsea. I haven’t played an official match yet but I’m fine, I can’t wait to play,” Belgium captain Hazard told a press conference on Wednesday.