Chizuru Arai claims Olympic gold medal, sixth for Japan

Japan took another gold medal on Wednesday. In the Budokan Chizuru Arai defeated Michaela Polleres of Austria by wazari in the finale for women U70kg. The double World Champion of 2017 and 2018 was the strongest today and became the successor of Haruka Tachimoto who quit after her gold in Rio in 2016. The Japanese secured the sixth gold for the team of headcoach Kosei Inoue with still three days to go.

Polleres also outperformed and cleaned the field of some of the favourites. She defeated this year’s World Champion Barbara Matic in the quarter final and overcame number one seed Sanne van Dijke in the semi finals. Austria took the second medal this week. On Tuesday Shamil Borchashvili claimed the bronze. Two medals for Austria never happened since 1988.

Japan is in a luxury situation and overperforms in the famous Budokan hall. Arai won Japan's sixth Olympic gold medal in judo at these Olympic Games. Japan claimed six gold medals in a sport at a single Olympic Games for the third time, after eight in judo in 2004 and six in artistic gymnastics in 1968.

The bronze was for Sanne van Dijke who lost her semi final against Polleres but came back in the bronze contest against Giovanni Scoccimarro of Germany who gave Van Dijke a tough time but couldn’t prevent a powerful hipthrow, far in the golden score. The opposition was broken and Van Dijke secured the first medal for her team, equal to the only medal in 2016 for the Netherlands with two more days to go in the individual tournament.

The first bronze was for Russia’s Madina Taimazova who had an incredible semi final against Chizuru Arai, a match of 16 minutes.Three of Taimazova's five bouts today went to golden score: 14:58 in the round of last 16 (won), 16:41 in the semifinals (lost) and 5:22 in the bronze medal contest (won). She won her quarterfinal bout after 32 seconds though. She secured her future with another bronze medal for the Russian women that won bronze in 2016 by Kuziutina. Taimazova bested World Champion Barbara Matic of Croatia in the battle for bronze. Taimazova won her pool where she defeated Elisaveta Teltsidou of Greece. The Greek big thrower disqualified French favourite Margaux Pinot in her first contest.

The winner was proud of her contribution to the Japanese team. She missed the Rio Olympics Games but this is a great compensation.
Arai: “I trained really hard, won World Championships two years in a row, so I have accumulated a lot of experience after not going to Rio and under this pandemic I continued to train hard. This is something I always wanted to get, and I could do it. I am extremely happy. I always set my goals, stick to my goals, and think about what I can do at the present. My semi final against Taimazova was a great match. My opponent was very strong and performing at her best. It wasn’t easy to grab her and used my ground techniques, which are my specialty.”

“Rather than waiting to the shido, I wanted a clear-cut win. This is the higher platform, so that is why all of us wanted to execute at the best of our technique. That would attract the audience, and get them interesting in judo. I am always looking to throw my opponent, that is the essence of judo.”

Polleres was satisfied about her performance: “It is simply a great feeling to have participated in the Olympic Games and have won a medal. It shows that it was worth the hard training for such a long time. It is an unbelievable feeling, it is so hard to believe. I am so proud to have won this.”

I grew into the tournament because I was very nervous in the beginning, but that went away, and I was really focused. The cooperation with my coach, and at home with my family worked well. I feel that my hard training paid off.

Russian Taimazova impressed everyone and got awarded afterall: “I wanted to win. I had very strong competitors, but wanted to win the gold. I didn’t succeed but I will keep trying. I have always been dreaming about this. I wanted a gold medal, and got bronze, but I am very happy.”

Dutch bronze medallist Sanne van Dijke: “I am very happy. It has been a childhood dream for me to have an Olympic medal. I would have really liked another colour, but maybe next time.”

“The Pandemic wasn’t a problem for me. I feel that I am still improving every day. So every day extra before this event was fine for me. Of course, it came with a lot of insecurity on whether the Games would be held or not, but I am happy Japan could sort everything out so that we can be here. Hard work paid off, and I could get the bronze medal.”