Another gold for the Czech Republic, this time for Lukáš Krpálek in judo!
Czech Lukas Krpálek won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s judo +100 kg category on Friday, defeating Guram Tushishvili of Georgia in the final. Bronze medals went to Teddy Riner of France and Tamerlan Bashaev of the Russia Olympic Committee.
Krpálek won at half-heavyweight in Rio de Janeiro, and he capped an impressive run through the heaviest division in Tokyo by pinning Tushishvili to the mat until he got the finish with 13 seconds left.
French star Teddy Riner’s quest for a record-tying third consecutive Olympic gold medal ended in the quarterfinals with a narrow loss to Russian athlete Tamerlan Bashaev, who then lost a spectacularly well-fought semifinal to Krpálek.
Riner still won his fourth Olympic medal. He claimed bronze with a victory over Hisayoshi Hasagawa, who became only the third of host Japan’s 14 Olympic judokas not to win a medal.
Japan claimed its ninth gold when women’s heavyweight Akira Sone won moments before Hasagawa’s loss on penalties in golden score. Japan also claimed one silver and one bronze in its homegrown martial art.
Bashaev went on to win the other bronze with a win over Ukraine’s Yakiv Khammo.
The judo tournament concludes with the Olympics’ first mixed team event Saturday.
