Momo Tamaoki, far more experienced than Zhou with a large collection of medals already, looked dominant from the outset, reducing China’s hopes of that second gold. At the halfway point she rolled through Zhou with a kata-guruma, not typically Japanese in style, logging a waza-ari which she followed quickly on the floor and held for the second waza-ari. The gold was Japan’s, the silver China’s.
The first bronze medal contest saw Shuang Liu (CHN) and Sosbaram Lkhagvasuren (MGL) step on to the tatami under the lights of the Conson Stadium. Lkhagvasuren was more rounded in her approach, attempting to throw and also apply shine-waza once on the ground but at full time there was no score for either judoka and so extra time was needed.
Lkhagvasuren had warned her opponent of the dangers in ne-waza and just thirty seconds into the added period she turned Liu over and held her for the 5 seconds required to register a medal-winning yuko.
Hyon A Kim (PRK) and Juhee Kim (KOR) fought for the second bronze medal of the category. At the beginning of the day it was noted that Hyon A Kim had no reference on the World Judo Tour prior to today. This certainly played to her advantage in the preliminary rounds but the in the final block she had a challenging draw.
It turns out that one of her assets though is persistence. Juhee Kim was active and dynamic but it was Hyon A Kim who had the extra grit to demand the medal. At almost two minutes into the golden score period she threw for a waza-ari and ensured her first outing would secure a medal for her team. Hyon A Kim now has a reference on the WJT!
Final (-57 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-57 kg)
