Korean Kim Sung-Min best of Asia

Korean Kim Sung-Min (won his third Tokyo Grand Slam gold medal at the expense of World Championships silver medallist and top seed Rafael Silva of Brazil in the last contest of the competition. Both judoka received two shido penalties for passivity in the early stages and, after Kim fell foul to the same indiscretion, he scored a yuko with 30 seconds left by the Brazilian’s momentum against him to counter a harai-makikomi attack by turning Olympic bronze medallist Silva partially onto his back. Kim seems to be one of those new challengers of Teddy Riner.

Kim saw off All Japan Judo Championships winner Ryu Shichinohe in the first semi-final by trapping him to the tatami with osaekomi-waza for 17 seconds and a waza-ari score. There was no comeback for Shichinohe saw Kim block his best uchi-mata attack. Silva defeated Kodokan Cup silver medallist Momose Masaru (JPN) in the second semi-final as the 24-year-old was penalised on three occasions with a shido to fall into the repechage.

The first bronze medal went to Harasawa Hisayoshi (JPN) in the battle of Japanese heavyweights as he toiled while a misfiring Shichinohe accumulated four shido penalties. The losing-semi-finalist received his first shido for not taking a grip and that was followed by three in quick succession for passivity to lose out by hansoku-make. The second bronze medal was won by Japanese hope Momose who picked up a win against the small Rijeka Grand Prix silver medallist Jean-Sebastien Bonvoisin. Momose went ahead with a waza-ari from an uchi-mata and followed up with ippon from a harai-goshi after two minutes.