QINGDAO, China, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japanese judokas claimed two gold medals on the first competition day of the Qingdao World Judo Masters 2019 here on Thursday.
Japan's World No. 1 Shishime Ai found it very difficult to beat her opponent Amandine Buchard of France in the women's -52 kg category final as both of them failed to score until six minutes into the golden score time. Shishime won the final by a golden score.
"I don't know how she feel at the extra time," said Shishimi, bronze medallist of the World Championships this year. "I just knew I was exhaused. But I tried to hide it and kept attacking. It was a tight fight."
Buchard had to settle with the silver. Diyora Keldiyorova of Uzbekistan and Astride Gneto of France shared third place.
Japan also won the men's -60kg category as Nagayama Ryuju defeat Spain's Francisco Garrigos with an ippon quickly in their final. Robert Mshvidobadze of Russia and Sharafuddin Lutfillaev of Uzbekistan took bronzes.
Moreover, Kosovo, DPR Korea, and Italy won a gold medal each. However it was an empty-handed day for the hosts as no Chinese judokas made the quarterfinals.
The Qingdao World Judo Masters runs from Dec. 12 to 14 and is the last competition of the 2019 World Judo Tour. It serves as an important qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Games. A total of 445 judokas took part in the Qingdao World Masters for Olympic ranking points.
