Rio de Janeiro: Judoka Rafaela Silva upset world number one Sumiya Dorjsuren to win hosts Brazil’s first gold medal of the Rio Games yesterday.
Silva, who grew up in Rio’s notoriously violent City of God neighbourhood, sunk to her knees after winning the under-57kg final with a half point waza-ari score from a leg reap counter attack, before leaping into the stands to hug her supporters.
London champion Kaori Matsumoto of Japan took bronze alongside five-time European champion Telma Monteiro of Portugal.
Silva scored the winning waza-ari after cleverly changing the direction of her attack from a hip throw to the front into a leg sweep to the rear.
Japan’s Shohei Ono won gold in the men’s -73kg judo, ending an anxious wait for a Japanese men’s team that had not claimed Olympic gold since 2008 in Beijing.
Ono had been on a surge all day and emphatically capped his campaign with an ippon –judo’s equivalent of a knockout – to defeat Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan. Belgium’s Dirk Van Tichelt and Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili took bronze.
Niccolo Campriani, silver medallist in London 2012, went one better when claiming gold in the men’s 10m air rifle. The Italian got the better of Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish, with Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia in bronze at the Deodoro shooting range.
Abhinav Bindra, who captured India’s first and so far only individual Olympic gold medal in the event in Beijing in 2008, just missed out on a podium finish in fourth.
Croatian army officer Josip Glasnovic won a tense shoot-off to secure men’s trap gold.
The 33-year-old from Zagreb, tied at 13-13 in the title match against Italian Giovannni Peliello, held his nerve to claim the sudden-death phase 4-3. Somerset farmer Edward Ling finished third for Great Britain, outpointing David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic 13/9 in the bronze medal match.
Thailand’s Sukanya Srisurat, who previously served a two-year ban for doping, pipped compatriot Pimsiri Sirikaew to gold in the women’s 58kg weightlifting competition.
Sukanya lifted an Olympic record 110kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 240kg, beating the silver medallist by 8kg.
Sweep
Chen Aisen and Lin Yue won the men’s 10m synchronised diving competition, keeping the powerful Chinese squad on course for a potential gold-medal sweep.
Chen and Lin led from the first round and finished a comfortable 39.87 points ahead of silver medallists David Boudia
South Korea’s world number one Kim Woo-jin was sent crashing out of the second round of the men’s individual archery by unheralded Indonesian Riau Ega Agatha, sending shockwaves through the tournament.
Kim, who won gold in the team event on Saturday and set a 72-arrow world record in the ranking round the day before, was tipped to vie with his compatriots for the individual title but succumbed to a 6-2 loss.
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