Men’s -73kg
Giovanni Esposito (ITA) won his first match, against Spain’s Diego Fernandez Campillo, in 14 seconds with a massive osoto-gari for ippon. It took him just one second longer (officially 15 seconds) to win his final match, against another Spaniard Anton Shuhalieiev, with hikikomi-gaeshi for ippon.
The USA’s Steven Boldbaatar lost his first match, against Arun Kumar (IND) who countered his drop attack to score waza-ari in Golden Score.
Women’s -63kg
Gili Sharir (ISR) used a good mix of throws, groundwork and tactical play to win the gold medal.
The USA’s Emily Daniela Jaspe lost her first-round match to Carlotta Avanzato (ITA) by two yukos.
Men’s -81kg
Arnaud Aregba (FRA), a relative unknown who’s ranked No. 33 in the world, stunned the crowd with his magnificent judo, winning by ippon in all his matches, including the final where he countered his Austrian opponent, Bernd Fasching’s ouchi-gari for waza-ari and then immediately pinned him for waza-ari-awasete-ippon.
The USA’s Dominic Rodriguez had a bye in the first round and lost his second-round match to Vusal Galandarzade (AZE) who threw him with ouchi-gari for ippon.
Women’s -70kg
Japan’s World Champion Shiho Tanaka used a wide range of ashiwaza, including osoto-gari, ouchi-gari, uchimata and hiza-guruma to secure the gold medal.
The USA’s Nancy Nguyen lost her first-round match to Jana Cvjetko (CRO) by hansoku-make in Golden Score.
