Defending champion Masato Uchishiba won the title of the men's light-weight class judo at the Beijing Olympic Games Sunday evening, giving the first yet long-waited gold to Japan's judo squad.
Uchishiba, 30, scored an ippon by a shoulder throw within 68 seconds in the five-minute final bout on Benjamin Darbelet of France.
The Japanese judo who won the Olympic gold medal in teh men's 66kg-class in Athens had experienced a depressing way toward the Beijing Games, finishing second place in the 2005 world championships and fifth of the Asian competition in 2008.
Folded in a pressing atmosphere on Sunday since Japan's Misato Nakamura dashed Japan's hope in the women's 52kg earlier, Uchishiba even lost for his belated fighting power, but he managed to achieve an also belated gold medal after Nakamura finished with Japan's second bronze in judo.
Cuba's Yordanis Arencibia defeated repechage winner Russia's Alim Gadanov to receive a bronze medal after the Cuban was ousted by Uchishiba by two waza-ari (equals to ippon) which surrendered sudden victory to the Japanese in semifinal.
Chol Min Pak from Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) gained another bronze medal from Mirali Sharipov, Uzbekistan, after he lost to the French judoka.
(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2008)