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World medallist Megumi Tachimoto retires

World medallist Megumi Tachimoto retires

18 Dec 2018 08:30
Christian Fidler

World championship silver medalist Megumi Tachimoto is retiring from competition, her sponsor announced on Tuesday. Tachimoto, who competed in the open weight class early in her career before moving to the +78kg category, said she would stay involved in judo “in some form.”

“Thanks to the many people who supported me, I was able to continue competing in judo while giving my all,” Tachimoto, 29, said.

An eight-time Judo Grand Slam winner, Tachimoto achieved her best-ever world championship result with silver in the +78 division in Astana in 2015. In total Tachimoto won four World Championships bronze medals in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014. She won the World Junior Championships in 2008 in Bangkok. Tachimoto won the Grand Slam Paris four times as well as Tokyo GS (3) and Rio (1). She collected her last of 22 IJF Tour medals at the Grand Prix in Düsseldorf in 2017. 

But injury prevented her from competing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where her younger sister Haruka won gold in the 70kg competition.

A native of Toyama Prefecture, Tachimoto also took the +78 bronze at the 2014 worlds in Chelyabinsk, Russia, and in 2013 in Rio. She captured open weight bronze at the 2010 worlds in Tokyo and in 2008 in Levallois-Perret, France.