Arai wins 70kg crown to keep Japan’s medal rush going

TOKYO: Chizuru Arai has won Japan’s sixth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, ater beating the Austria’s Michaela Polleres in the final of the women’s 70-kilogram middleweight division.

Arai reached her first Olympic final with three ippon victories, surviving a semifinal bout that lasted nearly 17 minutes against Russian athlete Madina Taimazova.

The two-time world champion then claimed gold over Polleres with an early waza ari at the Budokan.

Arai is just the second Japanese woman to win gold out of five weight categories in Tokyo. The men swept the first four gold medals in Tokyo, but they won’t win a fith ater Shoichiro Mukai fell short before the medal rounds.

Japan is still coming away from the first five days in its homegrown martial art with eight medals from 10 weight classes. The final three days of the Olympic tournament include five more opportunities for gold, including the first-ever mixed team competition Saturday.

Taimazova and the Netherlands’ Sanne van Dijke won bronze for their first Olympic medals.

Lasha Bekauri of Georgia won an Olympic gold medal in judo in the 90-kilogram middleweight division by beating Eduard Trippel of Germany in the final.

The 21-year-old Bekauri capped his impressive rise to judo’s elite levels with a waza ari on Trippel early in the final bout at the Budokan. He held on to win the fourth-ever gold medal in judo for Georgia.

Japan failed to win a gold medal in a men’s weight category for the first time in Tokyo when Krisztián Tóth of Hungary knocked off Shoichiro Mukai by ippon 2:55 into golden score during their round of 16 bout. The powerhouse Japanese team had won the first four men’s gold medals in Tokyo.

Trippel beat Toth in the quarter-finals and went on to secure his first Olympic medal. Toth and Davlat Bobonov of Uzbekistan won bronze.