EGN NEWS DESK
Georgia’s Lasha Bekauri retained the lads’s under-90 kg judo title he received in Tokyo three years in the past, whereas Croatia’s Barbara Matic received her nation’s first gold medal of the Paris Games on Wednesday within the under-70 kg class.
Bekauri, now a double Olympic champion on the age of 24, beat Japan’s Sanshiro Murao in a controversial ultimate that noticed the Georgian awarded a decisive second waza-ari after a video evaluate simply 4 seconds earlier than the tip of the bout.
The Japanese, a world championship bronze medalist, was denied an analogous determination on an assault of his personal seconds earlier, leaving his coach in disbelief.
Murao scored an early waza-ari earlier than Bekauri equalized two minutes and 37 seconds into the bout.
The Georgian has already set his sights on a possible “three-peat” when the Games head to Los Angeles 4 years from now.
“I’ll proceed to coach on a regular basis, my objective is gold after all,” he stated.
Twice world championship medalist Bekauri earlier eradicated Georgian-born Tristani Mosakhlishvili of Spain in a tense semifinal, profitable on a golden rating when the referee penalized his opponent for a 3rd time.
Both judokas hugged and saluted the gang hand-in-hand after their bout.
Mosakhlishvili, who competed for Georgia on the youth degree earlier than switching to Spain in 2020, later misplaced to Greece’s Theodoros Tselidis in a bronze medal match.
Murao took out Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou within the semifinals, profitable by ippon after inflicting two waza-ari on his French opponent.
Ngayap Hambou recovered to win a dramatic bronze in opposition to Brazilian Rafael Macedo, when his opponent obtained a 3rd penalty 5 seconds earlier than the gong.
The medal was France’s seventh within the judo competitors in Paris, although the hosts are nonetheless ready for his or her first gold.
Matic defeated German Olympic debutant Miriam Butkereit in an all-European conflict within the girls’s contest, scoring with an early waza-ari after which controlling the remainder of the combat to win a historic first-ever Olympic judo gold for Croatia.
“It’s a dream. I’m very very blissful. I’m actually pleased with myself,” stated Matic, who was Croatia’s flag bearer within the opening ceremony.
“Now I’m European champion and Olympic champion, I’m very very glad.”
Butkereit beat Austria’s Michaela Polleres, the Tokyo Games silver medalist, on a golden rating to succeed in the ultimate.
Polleres and Belgium’s Gabriella Willems received the ladies’s bronze medals.
