-70 kg: Tanaka Turns up the Heat in Tokyo

Neither could throw the other no matter how hard they tried. In the end it was a moment of brilliance from Tanaka that gave her a tiny but very important yuko. After a failed seoi-otoshi attempt from the Russian judoka, Tanaka whipped into position and turned her on to her back. She didn’t manage to hold it for long but 5 seconds was enough for a score that separated them. Shiho Tanaka was clearly happy to win at home and the crowd applauded her accordingly.

The first bronze medal would go to either Rin Maeda (JPN) or Katarzyna Sobierajska (POL), the latter fighting the crowd almost as much as her opponent. She didn’t let it distract her from the task though and although she was under great pressure throughout the contest, she made space to attack excellently with an o-soto-gake in the last 30 seconds. It was close to scoring but Maeda managed to scramble and survive, aiming to take advantage in the transition phase to ne-waza. Sobierajska was ready and felt the push from Maeda. She spun on to her front in mid-air and held Maeda for ippon. It was a masterful display of belief and opportunism.

Irene Pedrotti (ITA) faced Ai Tsunoda Roustant (ESP) for the last medal of the category. It was an unrefined contest with each stopping the full force of the other’s attacks, cancelling out any advantage and so the penalties began to accumulate. After 90 second of the golden score period Pedrotti had one shido while Tsunoda Roustant had two. They continued for another two minutes before Pedrotti put in a poorly prepared seoi-otoshi and Tsunoda Roustant countered it for a waza-ari. Spain takes this bronze medal.