Arai claims latest judo gold for Japan; Georgian wins men's 90kg

Japan's Chizuru Arai reacts after defeating Michaela Polleres of Team Austria during the Womens Judo 70kg Final on day five of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Nippon Budokan ((Photo By Harry How/Getty Images))

Women's 70kg

Chizuru Arai is the latest Japanese judoka to claim a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, a gold one at that in the women's 70kg class.

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The No. 3 seeded Arai didn't even have to deal with No. 1 seed Sanne van Dijke of the Netherlands, who was knocked off by No. 5 Michaela Polleres of Austria. Polleres won silver.

Arai choked out ROC's Madina Taimazova in their semifinal, but Taimazova came back to claim bronze along with Van Dijke.

Naohisa Takato, Hifumi Abe, Shohei Ono, and Takanori Nagase had claimed judo gold on the men's side, while Uta Abe won gold, and Funa Tonaki silver for the women.

 

Men's 90kg

Georgian 21-year-old judoka Lasha Bekauri is an Olympic gold medalist in the men's 90kg class at the Tokyo Olympics.

Bekauri added Olympic gold to his European Championship when he held off a stern challenge from unseeded Eduard Trippel of Germany on Wednesday at the Nippon Budokan.

There weren't places on the podium for the Nos. 1 and 2 seed judokas, as Spain's Nikoloz Sherazadishvili and Dutch judoka Noel van't End both lost in repechage.

Davlat Bobonov of Uzbekistan knocked off Sherazadishvili en route to a bronze medal win, while Hungary's Krisztian Toth finally added an Olympic medal to his collection after eliminating van't End in the repechage.


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