 His country's first gold ...
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:52 His country has never won a judo medal. So when judoka Elnur Mammadli entered the men's 73kg final yesterday, he wasted no time to give Azerbaijan something to cheer about. The 20-year-old took just 13 seconds to win gold in a day of upsets at the judo competition. He stunned world champion Wang Ki-chun with a te-guruma (leg grab) attack that scored ippon before the South Korean even had time to settle. Cheered on by his noisy compatriots in the stands, Mammadli could not believe his sudden victory when the referee gestured an ippon, staring in disbelief at the referee while still on bended knees on the mat. He had shown three ippons in his bouts before the final, in which he only surrendered one score of koka in the entire competition. An overjoyed Mammadli bit the medal when standing at the top podium, cherishing his first major victory. It was also sweet revenge for the Azerbaijani, who lost to Wang in the World Championship final in Rio de Janeiro last year. Wang had also nearly made his opponents scoreless in the four matches before final, but failed even to make an attack to before being defeated. On a day of firsts, Rasul Boquiev of Tajikistan won his country's first Olympic medal, as he edged out Belgium's European champion Dirk van Tichelt for bronze. Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil took the other bronze medal with the throw of the day, a standing shoulder throw on Iran's Ali Malomat to win bronze, just like he did at the 2004 Athens Games. Xinhua (China Daily 08/12/2008 page11) |
