As the strains of an elevator music rendition of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” fill the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium between the completion of the gold medal matches and the commencement of the medal ceremonies, let’s talk some judo. Some great judo, actually.

In what is actually an act of mercy, the Italian, British, and American feeds that ran all night were not made available to me by the universe/international broadcast rights. Had they been, I would not have slept appropriately last night, nor for the next six, and so I am thankful, in the end, that the CBC has decided to limit their streaming judo coverage to the late stages of the repechage, the semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal matches, all beginning at the perfectly civilized hour of 7 AM ADT. The CBC stream is of the highest quality, and it is broadcast without commentary, which, while of no help to the unininitiated, is great for the afficianado: you can hear the referee’s gentle “OK, let’s go” to a despondant athlete crumpled on the mat, or a coach’s call for a technique (”sumi! sumi!”) seconds before its execution. Great stuff.

The Women

The big story coming out of today is that Ryoko Tani failed in her bid for a third-straight Olympic gold to go along with her seven world championships. Things didn’t look good for her chances even from the early going: Tani made it past the USA’s Sayaka Matsumoto and China’s Shugen Wu, and Argentina’s scrappy Paula Paretto, but her wins were by yuko and koka, the smallest scores, rather than by the dramatic ippon techniques that have been her standard throughout her astounding career.

That said, Tani won her pool, and came into the semi-finals against the lanky Roumanian Alina Dumitru to a roar of approval from the crowd and calls of “Yawara!” from the sizable Japanese contingent. Their bout was a halting, hesitant, nervous affair, with neither contestant willing to come to grips. Both fighters were penalized for this early, which was not a surprise, but Tani was penalized again late, which was. Generally, when penalties are handed out in non-combative matches like this, they’re given in pairs, and at that point of the match, Tani was doing more to work for her grip than Dumitru was for hers, but in the eyes of the referee it was Tani who was refusing to engage. This sealed the match for the Roumanian, who went on defeat the Cuban Yanet Bermoy with a truly massive osoto-gari for ippon in the gold medal match, to the great displeasure of hilarious Cuban women’s coach Ronaldo Veitia.

The matches for bronze ended in techniques no less impressive than Dumitru’s osoto. Tani, fighting for Olympic bronze for the first time since Atlanta, threw Liudmilla Bogdanova of Russia with a first-rate harai goshi (”sweeping hip”) to the right side, setting up initially from a left-on-right-grip but working her right hand high on the Russian’s collar. Tani seemed absolutely joyless as the match ended. The crowd, knowing this was the end of the line for Tani, showed its appreciation, and Tani acknowledged them, but she clearly found little if any consolation in the bronze medal win.

The other match for bronze — two bronzes! just go with it; it’s going to be great — was the best match of the morning. Paula Paretto seemed to be in way over her head against the North Korean Ok Song Pak, who offered a shrieky little “hnuhhh!” after every “hajime” from the referree. While there was no score throughout most of the match, Pak had Paretto on the run, moving her around the mat almost at will, and grinding her down with impressively relentless sankaku jime attempts against Paretto’s turtling ne waza defense. When Paretto took a shido penalty for non-combativity, it seemed like it could well be the first of many. With less than twenty seconds to go, Pak entered for a technique that suceeded in breaking Paretto’s balance and sent the Argentine towards the mat. But at the last conceivable moment Paretto dug her heels in and reversed Pak across her body. What has taken you fifteen seconds to read took split second to happen, and the referee’s score of waza-ari confused the scorekeeper, who gave the score to Pak. Pak, sure she’d now put the match out of reach with seconds to go, was elated, while Paretto walked back to her mark looking inconsolable. The referee, though, along with her corner judges, walked over to the scorekeepers, informing them that the point was in fact Paretto’s. Replays revealed that the call was the right one.

And then the medals! Presented by Anton Geesink! You can’t top that!

Results!

1. DUMITRU, Alina (ROU)
2. BERMOY, Yanet (CUB)
3. PARETTO, Paula (ARG)
3. TANI, Ryoko (JPN)
5. PAK, Ok Song (PRK)
5. BOGDANOVA, Liudmilla (RUS)
7. CSERNOVICZKI, Eva (HUN)
7. HORMIGO, Ana (POR)

The Men

The story on the men’s side, by contrast, is not who didn’t win the gold, but who did. Korea’s Min Ho Choi took all of his matches by impressive ippon, his longest bout going a mere 2:28. It took Choi a mere twenty-four seconds to dispatch the Dutch world champion Ruben Houkes with a pick-up. Austria’s Ludwig Paischer can be pleased (and he seemed to be) with lasting 2:14 before being planted with a te guruma at a moment when he seemed to have sprawled out of danger. Choi collapsed to the mat in tears, staying there until the Austrian walked over, embraced him, and raised his hand.

Houkes went on to take an elated bronze (compare Tani, who looked inconsolable) against Israel’s Gal Yekutiel, who was a gamer, and clearly the pride of the three-man Israeli cheering section who could be heard over everybody (IS-RA-EL IS-RA-EL). Houkes was relentless with his right-side sumi gaeshi attempts, setting up from a left lapel and right high-collar grip, scoring a koka and waza-ari before finishing with an osaekomi pin for ippon with only ten seconds left on the clock.

The other bronze went to Uzbekistan’s Rishod Sobirov, who scored a koka by ouchi gari (”major inner reap”) and withstood the fluid, attacking judo of Frenchman Dimitri Dragin for the narrow win. Sobirov’s retreating style was enough to draw a smattering of boos from the crowd, but not enough to warrant penalty. Sobirov was bringing a medal back to Uzbekistan whatever way he could, haters be damned. To Sobirov’s credit, he athletically spun out of several Dragin attempts, and showed impressive conditioning en route to a razor-thin win.

British medal hopes in this division were dashed when Craig Fallon took an early loss to eventual silver medalist Paischer by controversial koka. I haven’t been able to track down this match myself, so I can’t comment on the point itself, but after two wins in the repechage, Fallon dropped his match to the Israeli (IS-RA-EL, IS-RA-EL), and was was clearly unable to bring his best today.

Canadian Frazer Will, who rounds out the top seven, made the most of a tough draw. Losing his first-round match to defending world champion and eventual bronze medalist Houkes by yuko, Will took his next two repechage matches by ippon before dropping the repechage final to Sobirov, again by yuko. Early in the bout, Will had Sobirov above his head in what looked to be a picture perfect kata guruma, but the elusive Sobirov managed to twist out of the throw and land on his knees for no score.

American Taraje Williams-Murray is worth a mention here, too, as he managed to defeat Hiroaki Hiraoka of Japan, a serious medal contender, by koka before losing in the next round. I don’t think anyone saw that coming, so good on Taraje, whose living room training sessions with Rhadi Ferguson are to be seen.

Results!

1. CHOI, Min Ho (KOR)
2. PAISCHER, Ludwig (AUT)
3. SOBIROV, Rishod (UZB)
3. HOUKES, Ruben (NED)
5. DRAGIN, Dimitri (FRA)
5. YEKUTIEL, Gal (IS-RA-EL IS-RA-EL)
7. WILL, Frazer (CAN)
7. FALLON, Craig (GBR)