Olympic Judo Day Six: Women’s 78 kg, Men’s 100 kg
Posted by Kendall Shields on August 14th, 2008
Perhaps you’ll recall from our Judo Primer last week that one of the stories headed into these Olympic games was the almost complete lack of faith the Japanese press had expressed in captain Keiji Suzuki ever since he crashed out in the second round of the world championships in Rio. Unfortunately for the 29-year-old former Olympic and world champion, he’s done it again. And probably for the last time. Suzuki was upended by a morote gari for ippon in his first match, and faired no better in the repechage.
The Men
If it’s any consolation (actual probability of consolation: 0%), Suzuki’s loss came to the eventual gold medal winner, Tuvshinbayar “Tuvshee” Naidan of Mongolia. This was, surprisingly to me, Mongolia’s first ever Olympic gold medal in any discipline. It was met with considerable celebration in Ulan Bator, which you can read about here. I’ve got the best part for you right here, though: Boldoo, a 24-year-old student, is quoted as saying, “We are proud descendants of the great Ghengis Khan and Tuvshee proved the strength of Mongolians in the Olympics.”
I am a little saddened to have missed the gold medal match live, as I’ve been impressed with the dogged Mongolians throughout the tournament. This is the one day the CBC elected not to offer streaming coverage of the final rounds of judo, especially since Canada had an athlete in each of the men’s and women’s brackets. Here, though, is the final between the Mongolian and Kazakhstan’s Askhat Zhitkeyev, who won all of his matches on the day by ippon (this won’t stay up long):
His kata guruma for waza-ari with two minutes to go is a thing of beauty.
Results:
1. Tuvshinbayar Naidan (MGL)
2. Askhat Zhitkeyev (KAZ)
3. Movlud Miraliyev (AZE)
3. Henk Grol (NED)
5. Przemys?aw Matyjaszek (POL)
5. Levan Zhorzholiani (GEO)
7. Daniel Hadfi (HUN)
7. Jang Sung-Ho (KOR)
The Women
Japan fared no better on the women’s side, with world silver medalist Sae Nakazawa losing her only two matches on the day as well. Eric Talmadge’s AP story on the day quotes her as saying, ““The weight of representing your country at the world championships and at the Olympics is different. It’s much heavier here. I couldn’t turn the support of the fans into a strength for me.”
That was obviously not the case for China’s Yang Xiuli, who took a decision win over Yalennis Castillo (CUB) for the gold medal. An Olympic gold medal match that went all the way to a decision? Are you serious? Why oh why, CBC, did you deny me live judo when such obviously rad things were happening?
Results:
1. Yang Xiuli
2. Yalennis Castillo
3. Jeong Gyeong-Mi (KOR)
5. Stephanie Possamai (FRA)
5. Edinanci Silva (BRA)
7. Lkhamdegd Purevjargal (MGL)
7. Heide Wollert
August 14th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
OH man, Kendall, you have to see the Women’s final. It was incredible. I mean, I was at work like hitting my desk and yelling at my monitor. It was just awesome. How has Judovision not put this up yet?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Yeah, I saw the pics of both finalists, and they looked battered. It must have been a hell of a thing. Thankfully all of this stuff is turning up *in some predictable places* even though Judovision has been a little bit behind lately. I’ll be able to catch the prelims I missed, too. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the raw feeds without commentary — my second choice would be a feed with ecstatic Koreans, I guess.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:58 am
haha, it is too bad the NBCOlympics.com feeds aren’t available, as they had no commentary.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Just got a chance to watch the men’s final, as this is a stupid busy time for me. I loved how Tuvshee got the 100 - 0 lead but spends the next two minutes actively engaging. Sure, the last ten seconds he does wind down the clock (and it ends up costing him a shut-out).
Although, I don’t watch enough Judo, so maybe that’s standard. If so, it’s still cool.