Gold for DPR Korea and for Georgia

London – GBR, July 29, 2012: Women’s -52kg: Joy for AN as she Realizes Olympic Gold Dream: Of the 8 women’s seeds that began the second day only one managed to make it to the quarter final stage. Many people will consider current world champion Nakamura Misato’s loss in her opening match to An Kum Ae PRK as the shock of the day and, coming as it did on the back of Fukumi’s defeat yesterday, is a major disappointment for the Japanese. An had overcome Sophie Cox GBR in her first round match and, after putting out Nakamura, went on to defeat Priscilla Gneto FRA along with Italy’s Rosalba Forciniti to put An in her second Olympic final.

On the other side of the draw Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy, who won silver at -48kg four years ago, put out number one seed Munkhbaatar Bundmaa MGL followed by Luxembourg’s flag carrier Marie Muller before defeating Ilse Heylen BEL in the semi final. An Kum Ae finally achieved her dream of an Olympic gold medal with a win in golden score. Having thrown Bermoy for yuko An leapt for joy in a slightly uncharacteristic display of sheer happiness after what had been a tense and nervous eight minutes. There were bronze medals for Rosalba Forciniti who beat Marie Muller by yuko and Priscilla Gneto who threw Ilse Heylen for ippon.

Final Results

1. AN, Kum Ae (PRK)

2. BERMOY ACOSTA, Yanet (CUB)

3. FORCINITI, Rosalba (ITA)

3. GNETO, Priscilla (FRA)

5. HEYLEN, Ilse (BEL)

5. MULLER, Marie (LUX)

7. KIM, Kyung-Ok (KOR)

7. LEGENTIL, Christianne (MRI)

Men’s -66kg: Georgia Strikes Gold

Number one seed Musa Mogushkov appeared to set the scene for many of the seeded players here at London’s Excel Arena when he lost his opening match to Tarlan Karimov AZE. He was quickly followed by both Khashbaatar Tsaganbaatar MGL and Leandro Chuna BRA. Next to fall in the men’s division was Rok Drasic SLO who was defeated by Ungvari Miklos HUN. Frenchman David Larose went out to Lasha Shavdatuashvili GEO.

In the first of the afternoon’s semi finals Sugoi Uriarte ESP overcame Ungvari Miklos in a repeat of the 2010 European Championship final, whilst Lasha Shavdatuashvili upset No. 3 seed Ebinuma Masashi JPN. In the closely fought final, the Georgian secured a memorable win with a single score for yuko to take the gold medal. There were bronze medals for Cho Jun-Ho KOR who won a hantei decision over Sugoi Uriarte and Ebinuma Masashi who threw Poland Pawel Zagrodnik for ippon with o goshi.

Final Results

1. SHAVDATUASHVILI, Lasha (GEO)

2. UNGVARI, Miklos (HUN)

3. CHO, Jun-Ho (KOR)

3. EBINUMA, Masashi (JPN)

5. URIARTE, Sugoi (ESP)

5. ZAGRODNIK, Pawel (POL)

7. KARIMOV, Tarlan (AZE)

7. OATES, Colin (GBR). —- IJF