American Kayla Harrison defeated France’s Audrey Tcheumeo on Thursday to successfully defend her Olympic title and create a legacy as one of the all-time greats in judo. Meanwhile, Lukas Krpalek claimed the Czech Republic's first ever Olympic judo medal by winning gold in the under-100kg division in Rio on Thursday.
Harrison becomes the first to win multiple Olympic gold medals in the women’s 78kg category and joins a short list of judokas who have won more than one gold in any weight class.
The 26-year-old American came out with guns blazing and was clearly the aggressor the whole match but was only ahead by penalties with seconds to go, when she got Tcheumeo to submit on a hold for the match-ending ippon.
The crowd was disappointed not to see a dream finals clash between Harrison and rival Mayra Aguiar of Brazil — they had been shouting “Mayra is coming!” during the American’s semifinal match with Slovenia’s Anamari Velensek — and boos rained down when Tcheumeo overcame Aguiar on penalties.
Aguiar and Velensek won bronze.
Krpalek bags men's gold
Krpalek threw Elmar Gasimov of Azerbaijan for the maximum ippon in the final with an inner reap technique before the two shared a sporting hug and soaked up the fans' acclaim in the Carioca 2 arena together. It was a rare moment of classical judo in a bout otherwise defined by the fighters' distinctly wrestling styles.
Krpalek, the 2014 world champion, had been the more enterprising of the pair and shocked Gasimov with a surprise attempt at a rear directional throw.
The Czech had earlier ousted the reigning world champion Ryunosuke Haga of Japan.
Ryunosuke Haga and France's Cyrille Maret won bronze.
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