BEIJING: Elnur Mammadli took just 13 seconds of the men’s -73kg final to win Azerbaijan’s first ever Olympic judo medal on a stunning day to claim gold at the Beijing Games yesterday. Almost nothing went as was expected on a day filled with shocks that also saw the virtually unknown Italian Giulia Quintavalle claim gold in the women’s -57kg category, beating Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands.
Mammadli, 20, stunned 19-year-old world champion Wang Ki Chun with a te-guruma (leg grab) attack that scored ippon, before the South Korean even had time to settle.
It was sweet revenge for the Azerbaijani who lost to Wang in the World Championship final in Rio de Janeiro a year ago. On a day of records, Rasul Boquiev of Tajikistan won his country’s first medal of any kind in any sport at the Olympic Games as he edged out Belgium’s Dirk van Tichelt for bronze.
Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil took the other bronze medal with the throw of the day, a full height standing seoi-nage (shoulder throw) on Iran’s Ali Malomat to match the gong he won four years ago in Athens.But it was in the women’s divisions where the apple cart was consistently upset, with Quintavalle emerging as the most improbable of winners. Reigning Olympic champion Yvonne Boenisch and world champion Kye Sun-hui were among a host of favorites to crash out early on. Boenisch over-committed herself in an attack on Quintavalle in the first round and was countered with a slick foot-sweep (kosoto-gari) for a waza-ari (half point) score. The favorite and four-time world champion Kye was the next to be shocked as she fell to France’s double European champion, in 2000 and 2006, Barbara Harel in the second round, bundled over for a waza-ari with te-guruma.
Harel’s subsequent defeat to Quintavalle meant Kye, who caused a sensation when bursting onto the judo scene at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and beating hot favorite Ryoko Tani (then Tamura) of Japan in the -48kg final, would not even have a second chance of a medal in the repechage round.
If that wasn’t enough, 2001 world champion Yurisleydis Lupetey of Cuba was knocked out by Nesria Jelassi of Tunisia thanks to a shocking refereeing error.
Lupetey attacked her opponent with uchi-mata (inner leg throw) and planted her firmly on her back before Jelassi turned the momentum and rolled Lupetey onto her back.
Incredibly the referee gave the ippon (full point) score to Jelassi, a rank outsider who then lost to Australian veteran Maria Pekli.
Pekli, a bronze medallist in Sydney eight years ago, missed out on another bronze as she lost to Brazil’s Ketleyn Quadros while China’s Xu Yan completed the most remarkable of podiums as she defeated Harel for the second bronze.
Quadros became the first Brazilian woman to win an individual Olympics medal.
