At the start of the final block, it was clear that once again Japan would largely dominate the debates, since the four Japanese athletes reached the semi-finals, leaving only crumbs for other nations. One of those significant crumbs was for Geronay Whitebooi from South Africa, who shows regularly that she has the capacity to reach the top. The other was for Chen-Hao Lin (TPE).
Still they each had to win one more contest to reach the podium, which they couldn't do, both were defeated. The bonze medals went to Wakana Koga (JPN) and Natsumi Tsunoda (JPN).
For the first final of the day Rina Tatsukawa (JPN) and Kano Miyaki (JPN) were fully committed from the first seconds on. At the end of the first four minutes, there were only two shido written on the scoreboard to Miyaki's name.
This was not necessarily indicative of the match, as Miyaki was sometimes more active, especially on the ground, having been very close to pinning down her opponent. In golden score, Miyaki eventually launched a perfect morote-seoi-nage for a waza-ari that offered her the title.
Final (-48 kg)
Bronze Medal Fights (-48 kg)
