Men's Half-Middleweight (78kg) Finals, Afternoon Session
Another Judo Gold For France:
Djamel BOURAS of France scored the largest upset in the Judo competition of the Atlanta Olympic Games today by overcoming Toshihiko TOGA of Japan for the Gold medal. BOURAS appeared aggressive, agile and lightning quick all the way to the top spot in today's matches. A unanimous decision by the three judges rewarded the poised and confident Olympian with a gold medal.
BOURAS, no stranger to the winner's podium, is the current European Champion and was a 1995 silver medalist at that event as well. He also captured the bronze medal in the 1995 World Championships. BOURAS's march to gold included brief and victorious stops over Konstantin SAUCHISKIN (RUS), YUAN Cheo (CHN), David GARCIA (ARG) and Stefan DOTT of Germany.
KOGA had to settle for the Silver medal after having been penalized for lack of aggressiveness and once for going outside the boundaries of the 16m x 16m tatami (mat). Appearing almost too patient at times, KOGA was constantly being attacked by the more aggressive BOURAS.
The bronze medals were awarded to Soju LIPARTELIANI of Georgia after he upended Stefan DOTT of Germany in just 19 seconds for the ippon and the win.
The remaining bronze went to CHO In-Chul of Korea after he scored an ippon over Argentina's David GARCIA. Medalists: Gold: BOURAS, Djamel (FRA); Silver: KOGA, Toshihiko (JPN); Bronze: CHO In-Chul (KOR) and LIPARTELIANI, Soso (GEO)
" ..nobody thought I had a chance...now I am an Olympic Champion,"
said gold medalist Djamel BOURAS of France.
Japan's Emoto wins Olympic Gold!:
Steady performances throughout her Olympic journey proved fruitful for Yuko EMOTO of Japan as she struck gold for the women's Olympic judo team. Her last explosion of the day was also her best: a winning throw of Gella VANDECAVEYE (BEL) over her left hip for an ippon with just 56 seconds gone in the championship match.
VANDECAVEYE commented afterwards that the medals won previously in the Atlanta Games were a great motivating force in her medal winning efforts of today.
Emerging as the Bronze medal winners out of the repechage bracket were Jenny GAL of the Netherlands and Korea's JUNG Sung-Sook. Medalists: Gold: EMOTO, Yuko (JPN); Silver: VANDECAVEYE, Gella (BEL); Bronze: GAL, Jenny (NED) and JUNG, Sung-Sook (KOR)
"I made it," said a happy and exhausted EMOTO Yuko after achieving gold in the women's half-middleweight (61kg) division. Men's Half-Heavyweight Preliminaries
Japan, Germany, France and Korea Cruise to Semifinals:
Toshihiko KOGA of Japan started slow using all 5 minutes of his first two matches to dispose of Bronislaw WOLKOWICZ (POL) and LO Yu-Wei (TPE). Then in the next match, the 1992 Barcelona gold medalist heated up in a hurry and slammed Brazil's Flavio CANTO to the mat to advance to the semifinals.
The other three semifinalists in the hunt for the gold include Stefan DOTT of Germany, BOURAS of France and CHO of Korea. DOTT scored three straight ippons in blowing past Ricky Dixon (NCA), Johan LATTS (BEL) and Fraki UZNADZE of Turkey. France's Djamel BOURAS is picking up steam with wins over Konstantin SAVCHISKIN (RUS) , YUAN Chao (CHN) and David GARCIA of Argentina.
Crowd favorite CHO In-Chul of Korea also had three straight ippons over his opponents. He dropped Oleg CRETFUL (MDA) savagely to the mat from an over the shoulder throw for the win. His next two wins were over Sosu LIPARTELIANI (GEO) and Vladamir SHMAKOV (UZB).
The 1992 Olympic silver medalist, Jason MORRIS of the USA, suffer a quarterfinal loss to UZNADZE leaving bronze as his only possibility for a medal.
Return to the Olympic News Menu
Select another day:
Pre | July | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | August | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Post |
| Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Games involved a crew of 2,100 who worked with more than 3,500 performers as well as thousands of athletes who celebrated on the field of Olympic Stadium. |