Japan’s pound-for-pound judo king Ono Shohei won his second Olympic gold medal while Kosovo won their second judo title in three days after Nora Gjakova shone at the Nippon Budokan on Monday.
IOC President Thomas Bach was in attendance during judo’s second session of the day and was involved in the women’s -57kg awarding ceremony.
Ono, 29, from Tenri University, is a protégé of 1984 Olympic champion Hosokawa Shinji who also mentored judo’s only three-time Olympic champion Nomura Tadahiro who won gold in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
The three-time world champion, who won his last world crown in 2019 in this iconic Nippon Budokan venue, is one of the sport’s greatest throwers and is simply untouchable when he’s on form.
Ono, whose dissertation at Tenri University was an analysis of his favorite judo technique, o-soto-gari (large outer drop), is now one of his country’s most successful judoka of all time.
Japan’s double Olympic judo champion said: “I wanted to move from a judoka with overwhelming presence to a judoka with absolute presence, and I have come closer to that presence.”
With a veritable collection of titles including two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships gold medals, -73kg ace Ono, is a talent for the ages. Only Tani Ryoko and Nomura Tadahiro from Japan have won more Olympic judo medals at five and three respectively.
Kosovo showed that they can now be considered as one of the sports top nations after Nora Gjakova become their second judo gold medalist at Tokyo 2020 and third in their history.
Gjakova matched the opening day success of -48kg champion Distria Krasniqi by winning all four of her contests as she negotiated a tough draw to claim the top prize in the -57kg category to send the Kosovo flag to the rafters at the Nippon Budokan.
“After Distria won and when I congratulated her, she came and said this is easier than winning a Grand Prix or Grand Slam, and her words really motivated me, so I tried to do my best,” Gjakova said.
Men’s -73kg
In his opening contest Ono strolled past Romania’s little-known Alexandru Raicu with a uchi-mata (inner thigh throw) inside two minutes.
In the elimination round of 16 the Asahi Kasei team member defeated Turkish contender Bilal Ciloglu with a yoko-shiho-gatame (side four-corner hold) pin for 20 seconds to advance by ippon.
In the quarter-finals Ono downed Azerbaijan’s Rustam Orujov in a repeat of the Rio 2016 Olympic final. The Japanese judoka registered two waza-ari (half score) scores for ippon, a ko-uchi-gari (small inner reap) and a uchi-mata, to move into the last four.
In the first semi-final Georgia’s London 2012 Olympic champion at the weight below Lasha Shavdatuashivili eventually defeated South Korea’s An Changrim in golden score.
Former world champion An, who also qualified for Japan but elected to represent South Korea early in his career, picked up this shird shido for passivity after four minutes and 37 seconds of added time to send the Georgian into the final and relegate the South Korea into a bronze medal contest.
In the second semi-final Ono Shohei bested Mongolia’s Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar after 53 seconds of golden score with a waza-ari score from a ko-soto-gake (small outer hook) attack.
In the final Ono remained patient as he knew he could create an opening and eventually unlock the defense of Shavdatuashvili who earned his third medal from as many Olympics. After five and a half minutes of golden score, Ono caught the Georgian with a sasae-tsurikomi-ashi (dropping ankle throw) for a match-winning waza-ari score.
“Just as usual, I tried to concentrate on focus and perseverance and patience. I remember these key words for me,” Ono said.
The first bronze medal contest saw Tokyo-based An, who lives 10 kilometers from the Olympic venue in Sangenjaya, beat Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Rustam Orujov with a dramatic late score.
With seven seconds remaining in regulation time, South Korea’s An threw the Azeri with an ippon-seoi-nage (one arm shoulder throw) to claim his first Olympic medal and deny Orujov a second consecutive time on the podium at the Games.
The second bronze medal went to Mongolia’s Tsend-Ochir who needed only 32 seconds to outgun Canada’s 2017 Tokyo Grand Slam runner-up Arthur Margelidon. Tsend-Ochir fell to his knees and kissed the tatami in celebration before being overcome with emotion and the tears flowed for the Tashkent Grand Slam winner. Tsend-Ochir submitted his opponent with a ude-hishigi-juji-gatame (cross-locking armbar).
Results: Men’s -73kg
GOLD – Ono Shohei (JPN)
SILVER – Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO)
BRONZE – Tsend-Ochir Tsogtbaatar
BRONZE – An Changrim (KOR)
Women’s -57kg
In the first semi-final Kosovo’s world bronze medalist Nora Gjakova upset former world champion Yoshida Tsukasa with a waza-ari score after two minutes of added time. A ko-soto-gake (small outer hook) effort yielded a match-winning waza-ari score as Kosovo had their second judo finalist in three days.
In the semi-final Canada’s second ever world judo champion Jessica Klimkait, who was out to become her country’s first Olympic judo champion, came undone in golden score against France’s Sarah Leonie Cysique. In a scoreless contest neither judoka could be separated in regulation time and golden score was summoned to produce a winner.
Four minutes of additional time was needed to separate the pair when Klimkait dropped under her opponent with a weak attack which was adjudged to have been a false attack. That third and final penalty saw Klimkait see red in the form of a disqualification having accumulated three penalties.
The first bronze medal contest saw World Judo Masters gold medalist Yoshida overpower 21-year-old Georgian Eteri Liparteliani. Liparteliani is the first Georgian woman to compete in an Olympic judo medal contest and gave a spirited effort before Yoshida scored twice with her potent uchi-mata (inner thigh throw) to wrap up a commanding win and her first Olympic medal.
Georgia has long been one the sport’s powerhouse nations having won seven Olympic judo medals before today from their men’s team including three gold.
In recent years they’ve made great strides with their women’s program which was largely forced upon them by a mixed team event being added to the Olympic program in 2020 as opposed to the traditional separate men’s and women’s team events that used to take place at the World Championships.
The second bronze medal contest saw Klimkait bounce back from her semi-final loss to beat Slovenia’s Olympic newcomer Kaja Kajzer after 70 seconds of golden score by a waza-ari from a seoi-nage (shoulder throw).
In the final Kosovo’s Gjakova profited from an uncharacteristic error from Cysique who was directly disqualified after three minutes for what was adjudged to be a dangerous head dive. Gjakova rushed over to her renowned coach Driton Toni Kuka before grabbing her flag and posing for the media.
The French delegation was not happy with the decision and boos rang out at the Nippon Budokan while many spectators and media were caught unaware by the decision.
Gjakova said: “Of course, I didn’t want this Olympic final to end that way, but there are rules I didn’t make, so I believe the decision of the referee.
“Still it feels unbelievable, but I had a great start of the year. Everything went right, every competition I was on the podium, so I really believed I would finish again on the podium, but this gold medal is really unbelievable.”
Defending Olympic champion Rafaela Silva of Brazil missed the competition after being banned from competition following a positive test for fenoterol back in 2019. Silva has not competed since October 2019 when she won the World Military Championships in Wuhan, China and her judo career is now in doubt.
Results: Women’s 57kg
GOLD – Nora Gjakova (KOS)
SILVER – Sarah Leonie Cysique (FRA)
BRONZE – Jessica Klimkait (CAN)
BRONZE – Yoshida Tsukasa (JPN)
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