Sardor Nurillaev remains undefeated at Asia-Oceania Championships

The star of Sardor Nurillaev is rising. At the2021 Asia-Oceania Judo Championships in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan's Nurillaev defeated former World Champion of South Korea, An Ba-ul by ippon in the men's U66kg final. Nurillaev captured the gold medal with impressive judo at the Grand Slam in Tbilisi two weeks ago and took bronze in Tashkent and Tel Aviv and seems to mingle easily in the top athletes in the U66kg category. An was runner-up at the same weight at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Nurillaev almost played with his opponents in Tbilisi and in Bishkek his victory over An is a huge next step on his way to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Under the guidance of Ilias Iliadis the Uzbek team is booming in almost each weight category, even among the women. The 26-year old Nurillaev was the only gold medallist but Diyora Keldiyorova took silver U52kgs. Asian Games silver medallist Park Da-Sol of South Korea claimed the gold in the women's under-52kg defeating Keldiyorova in the final. Sita Kadamboeva of Uzbekistan won bronze by ippon against Thailand's Kachakorn Warasiha, while Chinese Taipei's Lin Hsuan Hsu claimed the other bronze in this category with a win over China's Zhang Kexin.

Uzbekistan's Gulnur Muratbaeva claimed a bronze medal U48kg alongside Chen-Hao Lin of Chinese Taipei. China's Li Yanan won the gold medal with an ippon against Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova, who claimed the silver.

China tops the medals table after the opening day of the 2021 Asia-Oceania Judo Championships in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, with two gold medals from five events.

Also Kore was strog with 5 medals at the first day. An took the silver U66kg and his compatriot Kim Lim-hwan won the first bronze medal after his Australian opponent Nathan Katz was penalised for leaving the tatami, while Yeldos Zhumakanov of Kazakhstan pulled out a late equaliser to then win by ippon in golden-score time against Artur Te of Kyrgyzstan for the other bronze.

Takato stable

three-time world champion Naohisa Takato of Japan emerged from the men's U60kg with the gold medal after a 1-0 win over Chinese Taipei's Yung Wei Yang.

Kubanychbek Aibek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan gave the host nation its first medal of the event by winning a bronze medal via ippon against Kemran Nurillaev of Uzbekistan.

South Korea's Lee Ha-rim won the other bronze in the category by defeating Australia's Joshua Katz 1-0.

In the last final of the day, the women's U57kg, Lu Tongjuan of China defeated Kim Ji-su of South Korea.

Kazakhstan's Sevara Nishanbayeva defeated Justine Bishop of New Zealand by ippon to win bronze and Uzbekistan's Nilufar Ermaganbetova defeated Turkmenistan's Gozel Novruzova for the other bronze in fewer than 45 seconds.