ATHENS, 20 August 2004 — Noriko Anno landed a record sixth gold medal for Japan but Kosei Inoue came up empty-handed in a mixed day for the country at the Athens Olympics judo competition yesterday.
Anno, who lost in the first round of the Olympics in 1996 and 2000, finally won the one title that was missing from her collection by beating China’s Liu Xia in the final of the women’s under 78kg category.
The four-time world championship gold medalist was leading by a penalty score when, 22 seconds from the end, she punished her opponent’s reckless charge forward by dispatching her with sode-tsuri-komi-goshi.
Her gold medal was a sixth for Japan in Athens, a record haul for a single Games for one country in judo.
Inoue, Olympic champion and three-times world champion, had never lost at an international championships. But he looked flat from his first round and was beaten in the men’s under 100kg quarterfinals, allowing Ihar Makarau of Belarus to claim the gold medal.
Makarau beat Inoue’s conqueror, Elco van der Geest of the Netherlands, in the semifinal and then edged out Jang Sung-ho of Korea in the final for his country’s first Olympic judo medal.
He scored waza-ari with a leg-grab pick-up technique, which was a higher score than the yuko Jang earned for his major outer reap.
Ariel Zeevi delighted a large Israeli contingent in the crowd by landing a bronze medal when he threw van der Geest for ippon.
Germany’s Michael Jurack also claimed bronze against Movlud Miraliyev of Azerbaijan. Italy’s Lucia Morico beat Anastaysia Matrosova of Ukraine and Cuba’s Yurisel Laborde beat Celine Lebrun of France to win the women’s bronze medals.
Sailing-Greeks Bekatorou, Tsoulfa Win 470 Gold
Greece’s Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa won the first gold medal of the Olympic regatta yesterday after taking an unassailable lead in the women’s 470 class.
The four-time world champions, only 14th in Sydney four years ago, triumphed with a race to spare having dominated throughout the competition on the Saronic Gulf.
“It feel wonderful and I hope all the Greek people feel the same way,” Tsoulfa told reporters. “We are really happy to make Greece proud. We have been waiting for this moment.” The Athens-born sailors hugged and kissed as they crossed the finish line in second place in race 10, although the result is still unofficial and subject to protest.
Galiazzo Takes Archery Gold for Italy
• Italy’s Marco Galiazzo won the Olympic Games gold medal in men’s archery with a 111-109 win over Japan’s Hiroshi Yamamoto.
The 21-year-old Galiazzo defeated his 41-year-old opponent, who was a bronze medalist at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, 111-109.
Australia’s Tim Cuddihy took bronze ahead of Britain’s Laurence Godfrey 113-112.
“For the next four years, archery will be my priority,” said the Padova native.
South Korea’s hopes of adding the men’s individual title to the women’s gold won by Park Sung-hyun on Wednesday were ended in the quarterfinals when Yamamoto defeated Im Dong-hyun 111-110 and Cuddihy edged Park Kyung-mo 112-111.
The defeats meant that South Korea’s long wait for a first men’s individual gold goes on.
Park had been in fine form at the start of the day when he set a new Olympic Games record on his way into the quarterfinals.
Park shot a new 18-arrow record of 173 points hitting the 10-ring 12 times on his way to setting the new mark by one point beating compatriot Jang Yong-Ho’s previous best of 172 in Sydney. Former world champion Park saw off Ukraine’s Anton Prylepav 173-166 to reach the last eight but was beaten in the quarterfinals by Cuddihy.
China Strike Badminton Gold
• The Chinese shook off their early badminton blues in Athens to win the first two golds in the Olympic tournament yesterday.
Zhang Ning beat Indonesian-born Mia Audina of the Netherlands to win the women’s badminton singles title, then the mixed duo of Zhang Jun and Gao Ling defended their Olympic title after a classic duel with battling Britons Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms.
“Gao Ling told me don’t be too nervous. We won the title four yours ago, so our opponents must feel even more pressure,” Zhang said of their come-from-behind victory in game three to win the final 15-1 12-15 15-12.
The Chinese were expected to dominate badminton, but men’s top seed and world No. 1 Lin Dan was eliminated in the first round and woman’s top seed Gong Ruina was thrashed by Audina in the quarterfinals.
“We needed a gold in badminton today,” Zhang said after a gripping 8-11 11-6 11-7 singles match with Audina.
