Aaron Wolf from Japan in action against Nikoloz Sherazadishvili from Spain.
11:58 JST, August 2, 2024
Aug 1 (Reuters) – Japan’s Aaron Wolf surrendered his Olympic title in the under-100kg category after losing a judo competition at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, while Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner struggled to reach the semi-finals in the women’s under-78kg.
Japan’s Aaron Wolf reacts after losing his fight to Spain’s Nikoloz Sherazadishvili.
In a very open class, Wolf could not recover after he suffered an early waza-ari against 23-year-old Georgian Ilia Sulamanidze and was knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Wolf, who has a Japanese mother and an American father, is still in contention for a bronze medal in the repechage, while Sulamanidze will face world number 14 Daniel Eich of Switzerland in the semi-finals.
In the other semi-final, Russian-born world champion Zelym Kotsoiev, now playing for Azerbaijan, will face Muzaffarbek Turoboyev of Uzbekistan, the 2022 world champion.
Wagner, who won bronze in Tokyo three years ago, faced stiff opposition in her quarter-final against Japan’s Rika Takayama, but won by ippon to move on to face Israel’s Inbar Lanir, the 2023 world champion.
In the other semi-final, Italian world number one Alice Bellandi will face Portugal’s Patricia Sampaio, who took less than a minute to beat China’s Ma Zhenzhao with an ippon.
Earlier there was despondency in the stands when French judoka Madeleine Malonga, who won silver in Tokyo, was knocked out by Sampaio within a minute of her first match.
The disappointment was even greater when Aurelien Diesse was defeated in the round of 16 by Peter Paltchik from Israel.
For the first time since the start of the judo competition on Saturday, the host country has not won a medal.
