Men's & Women's Judo Middleweights Finals
Bronze turns to Gold for JEON of Korea:
JEON Ki-Young of Korea dropped to the mat using a technique known as seoi-naise for an ippon to defeat Armen BAGDARAROV (UZB) and snare the gold medal in the men's middleweight division of the 1996 Olympic Games. JEON had earned the right to fight for the gold by taking care of Marko SPITTKA in the semifinals. JEON, no stranger to being on top is a previous two-time world champion, in 1993 and 1995. His best Olympic outing prior today was a bronze in the 1988 Seoul Games. The silver medal was a disappointing one for SPITTKA, who was on a roll winning two out of his three previous matches by ippons.
Bronze medals were awarded to Marco SPITTKA of Germany and Mark HUIZINGA of the Netherlands. The decision of the judges to award SPITTKA the medal was met with a chorus of boo's and his opponent Hidehiko YOSHIDA quickly became favored from the 7,500 capacity crowd for his aggressive style. HUIZINGA's victory came after he inflicted an injury to the neck of his opponent Adrian CROITORU (ROM). The injury seemed to slow down the Romanian Olympian and HUIZINGA accelerated his attacks and eventually scored with an ippon for the win.
One of the best matches of the day featured SPITTKA (GER) and JEON (KOR). JEON won the match with 1:05 remaining with a spectacular over the shoulder ippon to advance.
Women's Judo Middleweight Gold Claimed by Korea's CHO Min-Sun:
CHO Min-Sun used a yoko-shiho-satama technique to topple Claudia ZWIERS of the Netherlands. CHO had cruised past WANG Xianbo (CHN), Dulce PINA (DOM) to reach the finals. CHO, a 24-year-old from Seoul seemed to grow in strength and agility as she advanced from round-to-round. The Korean Olympian became a crowd favorite for extremely aggressive and enthusiastic manner of competition, third place bronze medals were earned by WANG Xianbo of China and Claudia ZWIERS (NED). Wang defefeated OGASAWARA (USA) and Alice DUBOIS of France for her chance for an Olympic medal. ZWIERS outpointed WU Mei-Ling (TPE) to make it to the medal presentations.
Tomorrow's Judo Preview:
Next on the Olympic Judo docket is the half-middleweight division which takes place tomorrow. Watch for JUNG Sun-Sook of Korea and Catherine FLEURY of France to be battling in the women's medal round.
On the men's side, expect Toshihiko KOGA of Japan and Jason MORRIS of the USA to increase their visibility in the world of Olympic judo. MORRIS may be the USA's best shot at an Olympic medal in these Centennial Olympic Games.
"I'm so happy that Ki (JEON Ki-Young, the gold medalist for the men) won. When he does well I do well. I believe we are guided by the same spirit," said CHO Min-Sun, Korean gold medalist.
BAGDSAROV, CROITORU, JEON and SPITTKA in the Hunt for Olympic Gold
Armen BAGDASAROV rolled through the preliminaries and is now favored to leave these Atlanta Games with a medal, and quite likely, the gold one. His near flawless techniques took him to victories over Oleg MALTSEV (RUS), winning by an ippon and a third round decision over Algimantas MERKEVICIUS of Lithuania.
The other finalist in Pool A is Adrian CROITORU of Romania. His wins came over Hidehiko YOSHIDA (JPN), and Ruslan MASHURENKO (UKR) and France's Darcel YANDZI.
Heading up the finalists in Pool B of the men's competition are Marko SPITTKA of Germany and JEON Ki-Young (KOR). JEON, age 23, was the winner of the 1995 World Championships.
With bronze medal hopes in the repechage division, Oleg MALTSEV (RUS), Hidehiko YOSHIDA (JPN), Nicolas GILL (CAN) and Mark HUIZINGA of the Netherlands.
Brian OLSEN had his medal hopes dashed inthe second
round bowing out in the third round to MERKEVIICIUS (LTU). OlSEN
had defeated WU Kuo-Hui (TPE) in his first match of the day
CHO Min-Sun of Korea steamrolled past Xianbo WANG (CHN) and Dulce PINA (DOM) on her way to the medal rounds. On the other side of the bracket, Claudia ZWIERS was working her way up the ladder taking care of Liliko OGASAWARA (USA), a decision made at the conclusion of the four-minute match by the judges. A highlight in the second round came when WU Mei-Ling took care of her opponent in just 4 seconds, scoring an ippon over Rosiclei CAMPOS of Brazil. The other leader in this bracket is Claudia ZWEIRS (NED). ZWIERS battled past Liliko OGASAWARA of the United States in a judges' decision coming at the end of their four-minute war. ZWIERS outpointed WU Mei-Ling (TPE) to make into the finals.
Other medal contenders include Alice DUBOIS of France and Aneta SZCEPANSKA of Poland. DUBOIS successfully battled Mariela SPACEK (AUT) and Odalis REVE on her way to the semifinals.
The Polish Olympian SZCEPANSKA advanced by scoring ippons over both Melanie NGUEMA (GAB) and Rowena SWEATMEN of Great Britain. Watch for this one to be on the podium at the conclusion of today's finals.
"...this match was five minutes of hell," a Spanish television commentaor said of the repechage match between Hidehiko YOSHIDA of Japan and Darcel YANDZI of France.
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 |
| The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts. |