Czech Republic’s Krpalek topples Tushishvili in 100kg final
TOKYO: Lukas Krpalek has claimed his second Olympic gold medal in judo for the Czech Republic, winning the talent-stacked men’s +100 kg heavyweight division with an ippon victory over Georgia’s Guram Tushishvili in the final at the Budokan.
Krpalek won at half-heavyweight in Rio de Janeiro, and he capped an impressive run through the heaviest division in Tokyo by pinning Tushishvili to the mat until he got the finish with 13 seconds let.
French star Teddy Riner’s quest for a record-tying third consecutive Olympic gold medal ended in the quarter-finals with a narrow loss to Russian athlete Tamerlan Bashaev, who then lost a spectacularly well-fought semi-final to Krpalek.
Riner still won his fourth Olympic medal. He claimed bronze with a victory over Hisayoshi Hasagawa, who became only the third of host Japan’s 14 Olympic judokas not to win a medal.
Japan claimed its ninth gold when women’s heavyweight Akira Sone won moments before Hasagawa’s loss on penalties in golden score. Japan also claimed one silver and one bronze in its homegrown martial art.
Bashaev went on to win the other bronze with a win over Ukraine’s Yakiv Khammo.
The judo tournament concludes with the Olympics’ first mixed team event Saturday.
Heavyweight Akira Sone has won Japan’s ninth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics. She beat Cuban veteran Idalys Ortiz with penalties 4:52 into golden score.
The 21-year-old Sone fought courageously against Ortiz, whose silver is her fourth Olympic medal. She finally won in anticlimactic fashion when Ortiz was penalized for the third time for a false atack ater taking two earlier penalties for non-combativity. Iryna Kindzerska of Azerbaijan and France’s Romane Dicko won bronze for their first Olympic medals.