Japan tops Asian Games judo competition
Japan emerged as the overall champions of the 2010 Asian Games judo competition. The East Asian powerhouse won one more gold medal in an intense final day of competition at the Huagong Stadium on Tuesday.
Kazuhiko Takahashi won Japan's seventh gold medal of the meet when he ruled the men's open category. The heavyweight judoka scored an ippon over Mohammad Reza Rodaki of Iran in the final.
"As I have been chosen to compete here, I had to produce no matter what. Today's win is huge as I had to overcome many challenges," Takahashi told Kyodo News.
Mongolia's Munkhbaatar Khadbaatar and Uzbekistan's Utkir Kurbanov shared the bronze medals.
Takahashi's victory, however, proved to be Japan's final gold of the meet as two of his compatriots lost in their final bouts.
Hiroki Hiraoka lost to world champion Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan in the men's 60kg final. The Uzbek scored two waza-aris before finishing off his opponent with an ippon.
China's A Lamusi and South Korea's Choi Min-ho took the bronze medals.
Tomoko Fukumi bowed to local bet Wu Shugen in the women's 48kg final. Judges awarded Wu with a 2-1 victory after the three-minute overtime ended scoreless.
Mongolian Bat Erdene Baljinnyam and South Korean Chung Jung-yeon settled for the bronze medals.
All-Japan Judo Federation technical director Kazuo Yoshimura criticised the judges’ decision to award the victory to Wu.
"What happened in the last match should never happen. Decisions like that will demotivate athletes," he said.
"The opponent didn't attempt to deploy a waza at all. Fukumi, on the other hand, tripped her opponent three times and also was aggressive on the mat. How can that be a 2-1 decision?"
Yoshimura and other Japanese officials have lambasted referees and judges for their dubious officiating throughout the four-day Guangzhou meet.
Aside from Fukumi's controversial loss, they cited the case of Yoshie Ueno, who suffered a huge black eye after receiving several punches from North Korea's Kim Su-gyong in the semi-finals of the women's
63kg class on Sunday.
In the women's open final, China's Liu Huanyuan scored a yuko to beat South Korean Kim Na-young.
Tserenkhand Dorjgotov of Mongolia and Megumi Tachimoto of Japan pocketed the bronze medals.
Japan finished the judo competition with seven golds, four silvers and four bronze medals. South Korea placed second with a 6-3-5 medal tally.
China (2-1-4) placed third while Uzbekistan (1-4-3) finished fourth. Mongolia (0-1-5) placed fifth followed by North Korea (0-1-3), Chinese Taipei (0-1-2), Iran (0-1-1), Kazakhstan (0-0-4) and Tajikistan
(0-0-1).
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