In the Japan-Serbia quarter-final match, Japan sent out a whole new team, such is their depth. Abe, Niizoe and Nagase, two of them now double Olympic champions, won their contests but Zabic put a spanner in the works when she threw Takayama. Hope for Serbia was short-lived though as Wolf beat Kukolj next, 4-1.
Wolf (JPN) defeats Kukolj (SRB).

Germany and Brazil were up second in the quarter-final stages where Wandtke promptly threw Daniel Cargnin Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist for two scores. Brazil’s next Olympic medallist, Ketelyn Quadros (bronze in 2008 at -63 kg) faced Germany’s new -70 kg Olympic silver medallist and was thrown for ippon. Trippel led against Macedo from the halfway point but with 25 seconds left Macedo found a space and threw the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist for ippon with a tai-otoshi that he set up beautifully with an ashi-waza opener. Souza beat Lucht and Abramov then beat Gonclaves seemingly easily, leaving Starke to win or Silva to tie and it went Silva’s way. In the tiebreak Abramov and Conclaves were to meet again, a draw which the German team were happy with. Abramov took the win, as expected, giving Germany a place in the semi-finals.

Starke (GER) against Silva (BRA).

France-Korea began with Joan-Benjamin Gaba against Baul An, a fascinating contest, an illustration of speed versus power but both with great technique. It was an all-action affair with France taking the first point of the match on penalties. Jisu Kim tried her best to survive an onslaught from Gahie and her crowd but that survival instinct turned into a winning seoi-otoshi and Gahie was caught cold. Ngayap-Hambou won next for France with a massive uki-otoshi before Dicko obliterated Kim.

Gaba (FRA) vs An (KOR).

What a line-up next! Teddy, the 3-time Olympic champion at +100 kg against the -81 kg Olympic medallist Joonhwan Lee, who really gave it everything. Lee attacked again and again, mostly using a seoi to ko-uchi combination, the last effort countered by Teddy for ippon. 4-1.

Riner (FRA) vs Lee (KOR).

Italy and Uzbekistan came forward next, the last quarter-final ahead of them. Lombardo and Yuldoshev kicked things off for a seven and a half minute contest, finished in ne-waza in favour of Yuldoshev. Matniyazova was too strong for Russo too so the Parlati-Bobonov fights at -90 kg was very important. Parlati made his opportunities count and threw Bobonov right on the gong having looked at risk prior to that. Kurbanbaeva and Bellandi were next and the Italian showed why she is number one in the world. Pirelli-Yusupov would break the deadlock temporarily, two of the strongest men on the circuit, looking to offer their team the advantage at the 2-2 stage. Pirelli shocked the Uzbek team by holding Yusupov down, for just enough time to get the waza-ari needed. It was 3-2 to Italy with Toniolo and Aminova still to go. At the end of a long and challenging contest, Toniolo took the point on penalties and Italy found themselves in the semi-final facing France.

Japan and Germany came on for the first semi-final, beginning with the -70 kg category. A world champion versus a new Olympic silver medallist was exactly the contests everyone wanted to see. It was a very close fight, both hunting the ippon all the time. Niizoe took the win by a slim margin, just catching the point of Butkereit’s shoulder for waza-ari in golden score. Murao then countered and held Trippel before Takayama held Lucht and secured Japan’s 3rd win in the match. Abramov then came extremely close to throwing Tokyo Olympic champion Aaron Wolf with o-uchi-gari in the first exchange. He came extremely close to armlocktng him in the second. Wolf would have to step up the pace. Wolf’s response was throw for waza-ari but he couldn’t keep the control enough to secure a hold down so he threw again to take Japan into the final.

Japan vs Germany.

France were in the second semi-final; we could tell that from the volume of the spectators ahead of their entry into the arena. They faced Italy. Gahie took the first win against Polling but Parlati equalised, defeating Ngayap-Hambou on penalties. Bellandi versus Dicko was tantalising for the public, two great champions but from different categories. The French were happy when Dicko threw and held Bellandi, only to send Teddy on next to face Gennaro Pirelli. Teddy eventually won on penalties but it was tight. Cysique completed the necessary points by beating Odette Giuffrida.

Gahie beat Polling.
Team Italy.

Notable moments in the repechage included Zabic throwing Souza with a seoi-otoshi and holding her down before Brazil took the over victory. Kim’s seoi-nage against Yusupov in the other repechage match, Korea against Uzbekistan, was also spectacular, as wast he speed at which Keldiyorova transitioned to an armlock from Huh’s failed soi-otoshi. Their final result was that Korea moved forward to fight for bronze while Uzbekistan had to settle for 7th place.

See also