Daily Times

Natsumi Tsunoda gave Japan a winning start in the Olympic judo, taking women’s under-48kg gold on Saturday as the competition started in Paris with the two lightest weight classes.

In the men’s under-60kg final, Kazakhstan’s Yeldos Smetov edged French hope Luka Mkheidze despite the roaring support of a packed crowd at the temporary arena on the Champs de Mars.

Japan have led the medals table at 11 of the 14 Olympics in which judo has been contested. Tsunoda, who dropped a weight class after missing her home Games in Tokyo injured, secured gold in her first Olympics with just over a minute left in her final, rolling on her back and flipping Baasankhuu Bavuudorj head-first to the mat.

That was enough for the lesser score of waza-ari. Tsunoda, 31, had her Mongolian opponent firmly round the neck as the gong sounded. When Smetov won silver in Rio in 2016 the feat was commemorated in Kazakhstan with a stamp showing him biting his medal. “I had been waiting for a long time for a gold medal,” he said. “I was almost waiting on the sidelines, having won silver at Rio and bronze in Tokyo.” He scored the only point by levering his opponent into the mat.