Irakli wins emotional gold in men’s 90kg judo for Georgia

The Georgian succeeded compatriot Zurab Zviadauri as 90kg champion after his countryman had become the first person to win an Olympic gold for Georgia in Athens four years ago.

Tsirekidze beat Amar Benikhlef of Algeria in the final by a single penalty, despite his adversary being unlucky not to register what seemed to be two valid scores.

Benikhlef, though, will not be too disappointed after becoming just the second person from his country to win an Olympic judo medal, just three days after Soraya Haddad won bronze in the women’s 52kg division — also becoming the first African women ever to win a judo medal at the Games.

In the women’s 70kg category Japan’s Masae Ueno retained her Olympic title with a quick-fire defeat of Cuba’s Anaysi Hernandez in the final.

Ueno and Tsirekidze’s victories went generally against the grain of shocks on a blistering day of competition.

Ilias Iliadis of Greece, the Athens champion at 81kg four years ago, was the first to fall to veteran Mark Huizinga of the Netherlands.

But Huizinga himself lasted only one more round as Swiss veteran Sergei Aschwanden proved his undoing.

Aschwanden went on to claim bronze with a come from behind victory over Pershin.

With 2005 world champion Hiroshi Izumi also falling by the wayside early on Egypt’s Hisham Mesbah was a surprise bronze medallist as he produced one of the throws of the day to beat France’s Yves-Matthieu Dafreville.

Ueno’s path to glory was a hazardous one but she pinned her first three opponents before throwing her main rival Edith Bosch of the Netherlands with uchi-mata (inner thigh throw) in the semi-final.

That was a repeat of the Athens final four years ago and the outcome was the same. It was also the third time Ueno has beaten Bosch in the latter stages of a major global competition having also beaten her in the World Championship semi-final in 2003.

Hernandez’s path to the final was eased by reigning world champion Gevrise Emane of France falling at the first hurdle against Spain’s Leire Iglesias.

Iglesias then lost to Germany’s Annett Boehm who was in turn beaten by Hernandez in the semi-final.

But Hernandez seemed to freeze in the final and was caught early by a kochiki-taioshi (running leg-grab) attack from Ueno, a technique she almost never uses.

Bosch hit back to beat Iglesias for bronze while Ronda Rousey won the first ever Olympic medal by an American woman as she too took bronze.