Takanori Nagase delivers fifth Japanese gold

In the men's category U81kg on Tuesday some of the top favourites qualified for the final block, but the outcome was surprising. Japanese Takanori Nagase added a gold medal to the wallet of the host country to a total of five gold medals.

Nagase is probably not the most spectacular Japanese judoka but he is highly efficient. Taking more time to prepare his movements, he is patient and that's the way he worked throughout the day and in the final as well. Having spent more time on the tatami than his opponent from Mongolia Saeid Mollaei and especially in golden score, Nagase knew what to do and at what time. With the perfect timing he executed a tai-otoshi that sent Mollaei to the floor for the silver medal takin the gold himself.

Nagase Takanori said: “It is a very big stage to win here. There was huge pressure because my teammates have won gold and have been performing very well. But I tried not to think about it and tried to concentrate on my own matches. I can’t tell what was the hardest part of today. Every contest was tough and I’m happy but exhausted."

"My rival was looking a little tired. I could feel he was fatigued. So that was my chance and I took the final blow. I had experienced the Olympics before, and it was very good for my development. This was my aim, my ambition, and it was a dream fulfilled. I was really overwhelmed with emotions, and I cried."

The whole Saeid Mollaei story started two years ago here in Tokyo, on the occasion of the World Championships, when the Iranian-born world champion decided to fight for his freedom. Since then, Saeid has been struggling to come back to his best level and what is extraordinary is that he did it on the D-day, the day he was dreaming of.

Saeid Mollaei said: "Two years ago I said I will come back here and win an Olympic medal. I’m a man of my word. This medal is for my family and for all of the judo family."

Saeid Mollaei claimed Mongolia's third medal at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. All three were in judo. This marked the first time Mongolia collected at least three medals in judo at a single Olympic Games.

Bronze medallists from Austria and Belgium.

Belgian World Champion Matthias Cassse had really challenging first rounds and at any time he could have lost. That’s where you recognise great champions, something that Matthias definitely is. When times are hard, they find the necessary energy to produce the winning technique. When Casse was thrown for waza-ari by Adrian Gandia (PUR) in the first round, things looked bad for him but he came back and won, as he did again against Robin Pacek (SWE) and Alan Khubetsov (ROC), to face in Takanori Nagase (JPN) in the semi-final, who also had to struggle to find his way through the preliminary rounds. As it was the case throughout the preliminary rounds, both athletes ended up in the golden score period, where everything seemed so close: winning, loosing, neither Casse nor Nagase could tell, but eventually it's the Japanese who forced the doors to the final by scoring a waza-ari with a last chance shoulder movement. Matthias Casse scored a beautiful ippon with a counterattack against Tato Grigalashvili of Georgia to step on the podium.

Matthias Casse: "Grigalashvili defeated me at the Europeans and then I won the Worlds against him. Today I defeated him in the semis. This is sport, it comes and goes."

Matthias Casse (BEL) became the fourth Belgium man to win an Olympic medal in judo, after Robert Van De Walle (gold in 1980, bronze in 1988), Harry Van Barneveld (bronze in 1996) and Dirk Van Tichelt (bronze in 2016).

In the second half of the draw many names could have made it through, like Tato Grigalashvili (GEO), but he was defeated by a Saeid Mollaei (MGL) who was on fire, reaching the semi-final. Everyone was dreaming of a semi-final between him and Sagi Muki (ISR) but the 2019 world champion was defeated in the second round by the surprise of the day, the Austrian Shamil Borchashvili, who joined Mollaei in the semi-final, even if the Austrian was not among the favorites of the category. This is exactly how the category looked like over the past years, with several athletes capable of winning and new comer showing up at every event.

It is Saeid Mollaei who qualified for the final, after having produced two movements in a pure Mollaei's style, that only him can perform, two kata-guruma in two different forms.

Shamil Borchashvili claimed the first judo medal for Austria since 2008 by Ludwig Paischer. Borchashvili was fantastic at the World Championships, but even better in Tokyo. He scored a waza-ari and a pin down for ippon against Dominic Ressel of Germany

Repechage matches

After the preliminaries in the morning, only four athletes were still present in the repechage to have one more chance of reaching the podium. After four days of competition, Alan Khubetsov was the first athlete from the Russian Olympic Committee to be in a position to win a medal, but first he had to face Dominic Ressel (GER), who was really close to eliminating Nagase in the quarter-final. In the morning session we observed many close matches, finishing with long golden score periods where power and strength were involved. Ressel produced one of the nicest and finest techniques against Khubetsov and scored ippon with a de-ashi-barai to enter the bronze medal contest.

The second repechage match saw Sharofiddin Boltaboev (UZB), also being in a position to win Uzbekistan's first medal, when the country was among the favourites to step on several podia and Tato Grigalashvili, who probably thought he had done the most difficult part against Saeid Mollaei in the morning session when he threw him for waza-ari, but this was without counting on the capacity of the 2018 Baku world champion, to change a situation that looked pretty bad, into a clear victory.

Tato Grigalashvili was the first in action to score a waza-ari with a o-uchi-gari to take the lead, a waza-ari that Sharofiddin Boltaboev could never catch up with.

Preliminaries

This is the magic of sport and especially of judo. Many specialists agreed that Tato Grigalashvili had all the chances to defeat Saeid Mollaei in the quarter-final and the first minute of the bout proved them right, but then the Mongolian representative executed an almost perfect kata-guruma for waza-ari, followed a few seconds later by another waza-ari from a counter attack that only the Iranian-born champion can do, with his unorthodox style. Maybe Tato was too confident. Being so is necessary and good and all champions are confident in what they can achieve, but there is a limit that they shall not cross. The Georgian is still young and he will learn to deal with that. If he does, he will definitely be really difficult to defeat in the future.

Nagase Takanori won Japan its fifth gold medal in judo at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Only at the Olympic Games Athens 2004 did Japan win as many gold medals in judo (8). Japan has won each of the first four men events in judo at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The only other Olympic Games in which at least four men events in judo were won by the same NOC were the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984, when Japan also won four.