Source: Xinhua
08-13-2008 19:33
Special Report: 2008 Beijing Olympic GamesBEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Masae Ueno of Japan beat Cuban Anaysi Hernandez by ippon to take the women's 70kg judo gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games here on Wednesday.
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| Masae Ueno of Japan celebrates the victory over Anaysi Hernandez of Cuba during women's 70kg final of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Judo event in Beijing, China, Aug. 13, 2008. Masae Ueno claimed the gold of the Judo women's 70kg. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling) |
Just 46 seconds into the five-minute bout, Ueno stunned Hernandez by "ippon" - perfect execution of a technique which immediately stops the match.
The defending champion didn't make frequent international appearances after winning the 70kg-class match in Athens. That doesn't mean she is getting rusty. In this Olympics, she won four ippon-games in her five outings.
"Winning the gold medal is not only for me, it is also for the people who support me," said the 29-year-old Ueno.
"In the final, I was thinking to use leg techniques so that the result became like this," she added.
Before the Hernandez bout, Ueno had repeated her victory of the Athens final by shoulder-throwing 2004 Olympic runner-up Edith Bosch of the Netherlands, with a waza-ari in the semifinal.
In the meeting with her Dutch rival, Ueno, who stands 1.6 meters, only surrendered a koka to 1.83-meter-tall Bosch. Ueno's win over Bosch once again proved judoka's ability could not be judged by size of their figures.
Bosch later beat Spanish Leire Iglesias by an ippon to have her second Olympic medal.
"It is harder to stay at the top than to get to the top," said Bosch, 2005 world champion. "With two Olympic medals, I am very satisfied."
The other bronze went to Ronda Rousey, who upset Annett Boehm of Germany by yuko to claim the U.S. women's first Olympic judo medal.
"It will take a lot more than this to make judo big in the USA," the 21-year-old American said, revealing that she would take a year off to go to school after the Olympic Games.
"My mum always said she wanted me to know what it feels like to be one of the best in the world," she said.
Rousey's mother, Ann Maria Rousey, was world judo champion in 1984.
Editor:Si Qintu
