 ... And her country's first gold
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:52 Guilia Quintavalle secured Italy's first judo medal of the Olympic Games yesterday. She won the women's 57kg category at the Beijing University of Science and Technology Gymnasium, beating Netherlands' Deborah Gravenstijn by yuko in the final. At times, the bout resembled a vigorous barn dance, with both judokas skipping around the tatami with their arms tightly interlocked. But Quintavalle, who earlier knocked out defending champion Yvonne Boenisch of Germany, kept her cool and used her height to good advantage, gradually wearing down 33-year-old Gravenstijn to emerge as winner. The Italian's previous best results were fifth-place finishes in the 2007 world championships and this year's European championships. Ketleyn Quadros became the first Brazilian judoka to win an Olympic medal, beating Australia's Athens bronze medalist Maria Pekli with a waza-ari score in extra time to take bronze. China's Xu Yan celebrated with a gymnastic cartwheel and flip after beating France's Barbara Harel with an automatic ippon victory to take bronze. Sydney 2000 champion Isabel Fernandez went out to Gravenstijn in the quarterfinals, while world champion and gold medal favorite, Kye Sun-hui of North Korea, lost to Harel by waza-ari in the second round. Agencies (China Daily 08/12/2008 page11) |
