Ilias Iliadis won a second gold medal for host country Greece yesterday and became the youngest men’s Olympic judo champion.
The remarkable 17-year-old stormed to Olympic gold, blitzing double European junior champion Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine in the final as hoards of ecstatic Greeks raised the roof of the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.
“My age does not matter,” the Georgian-born champion said as his father Nikos translated into pidgin-Greek. “When someone has an objective, they have to fight to achieve this objective. When you have the gold medal in your sight you have to fight for it.”
Sitting in the news conference after his victory and wearing his olive wreath, Iliadis, who won the European title in May, became a Greek hero.
He started competing internationally a year ago at under 73kg but stepped up to under 81kg this year and became virtually unbeatable.
With a whiff of youthful arrogance he added: “It did not tire me today - judo is a sport for men and if you are a man you don’t get tired.”
That was not the case for his opponents who seemed exhausted and surprised they were surpassed by someone so young.
Silver-medalist Roman Gontyuk, 20, said he was happy with his medal and paid tribute to his conqueror.
He said: “It is a pleasure to win this medal as I did not expect it to happen. He (Iliadis) is a great champion and I am very happy with my medal.”
Dmitri Nossov fought through the pain barrier to win bronze with a powerful pick-up technique to defeat Mehman Azizov of Azerbaijan.
Brazil’s Flavio Canto beat Robert Krawczyk of Poland to win the other bronze medal and said he hoped it would help him get more support for the social project he runs in a slum in his home city of Rio de Janeiro.
Japan’s Ayumi Tanimoto also claimed gold, in the women’s under 63kg division. She fought faultlessly and comfortably despatched Austria’s Claudia Heill in one minute in her final, throwing and then pinning her foe.
Tanimoto was overawed by her victory, which came a year after she left the World Championships in her home county empty handed.
She said it was something she had dreamed of since she was a sports-mad child but that she had not expected it to happen so soon.
“Until now my coach and I have been talking about some day I would finally get the Olympic gold medal,” she said. “We have been talking and talking and talking about it and today it has become a reality — it is as exciting as it possibly could be.”
Tanimoto’s victory heralded a new age in her division as she stood above four-time Olympic medal winner Driulys Gonzalez of Cuba. Gonzalez took bronze after world champion Daniela Krukower of Argentina injured her arm in losing to Tanimoto in the semifinal and could not take further part in the competition.
Slovenia’s Urska Zolnir joined her on the podium after she edged out Canada’s Marie Chisholm to win the other bronze medal.
