Sho Tateyama defeats Korean age rival Ba-Ul An in Jeju

Japanese Tateyama Sho won the first IJF gold medal of his young career with victory against 2013 Junior world champion An Ba-ul (KOR). Both judoka were unseeded but made their presence felt all day long to earn the right to decide the fate of the gold medal. The Japanese Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix bronze medallist , defeated 20-year old An who fights in Tokyo next week – by a single shido which was all that separated the judoka after five minutes of regulation time.

In the first semi-final world bronze medallist and top seed Georgii Zantaraia (UKR) was undone by the determined young Japanese fighter Tateyama. Zantaraia was humbled on shido penalties with three against his record and two against TATEYAMA who booked a place on his second IJF medal podium of the year. In the second semi-final a similar story unfolded as the more experienced and accomplished judoka was denied by a hard-working fighter on his home continent. Baku Grand Slam winner Colin OATES (GBR) fell to AN who registered two scores as the former conceded a yuko and waza-ari but still maintained hope of his first Asian medal in the repechage.  

The first bronze medal was won by former European bronze medallist OATES who won his country’s first medal in Jeju at the expense of Baku Grand Slam bronze medallist Golan POLLACK (ISR). OATES took the lead with a yuko and added a waza-ari by holding his opponent down with a mune-gatame for exactly 15 seconds. The second bronze medal went to Tyumen Grand Slam bronze medallist Anzaur ARDANOV (RUS) who won a battle of attrition against ZANTARAIA. After a scoreless five minutes the judoka required golden score. The rivals matched each other still and were both at their physical limit. With two and a half minutes of golden score on the clock, ZANTARAIA walked on to his Russian opponent who caught him with ashi-waza for ippon as the appreciative Korean crowd showed their appreciation for the immense efforts of both judoka.