Rio, August 9, 2016 – Host of the 2016 Olympics, Brazil has picked her first gold medal at the ongoing festival in Rio.
Judoka Rafaela Silva delivered the first gold medal for the host country when she won the women’s -57kg.
An aggressive Silva scored waza-ari over Mongolia’s Sumiya Dorjsuren with a throw a little over a minute into the final and was able to hold on to that lead amid deafening cheers from the stands.
“I’m very happy about the result. I’ve been training a lot these last few years and the results are showing. The supporters really helped me with momentum and the pressure against my opponents. The stadium was shaking, everybody was screaming and cheering me up every minute,” the Olympic champion said.
Japan’s Shohei Ono won gold in the men’s -73kg judo, ending an anxious wait for a Japanese men’s team that had not claimed Olympic gold since 2008 in Beijing.
Ono had been on a surge all day and emphatically capped his campaign with an ippon — judo’s equivalent of a knockout — to defeat Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan. Belgium’s Dirk Van Tichelt and Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili took bronze.
“I am happy to win the gold medal. It is a big achievement for me. I was practising hard in Japan to get in good shape. But it was difficult to show the level of my practice in the Olympic Games. I felt a lot of pressure, but I could do it,” Ono said.
Ono’s victory ended Japan’s sequence of five judo bronze medals in Rio. Japan won just one gold medal in judo at the London Games, considered an embarrassment for the birthplace of the sport, and is eager to atone in Rio.
