Varlam Liparteliani of Georgia,Baker Mashu of Japan, Gwak Donghan of South Korea and Cheng Xunzhao of China (from L to R) attend the awarding ceremony of the men's 90KG judo final at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 10, 2016. Baker Mashu won the gold medal. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Haruka Tachimoto and Mashu Baker struck double gold medals for Japan by winning women's 70kg and men's 90kg judo competition at the Rio Olympic Games here on Wednesday.
Tachimoto looked strong from the beginning in the women's 70kg. Two minutes into the final, she threw three-time world champion Yuri Alvear of Colombia for yuko and held her down to score ippon and hand Japan gold medal.
Sally Conway from Britain and Laura Vargaskoch from Germany took the bronze medals.
In the men's 90kg, Baker and European champion Varlam Liparteuani from Georgia looked evenly matched in the beginning of the final, but then the Japanese scored a yuko halfway through the match and managed to hold on to the lead.
China's Cheng Xunzhao gained a bronze medal, becoming the first Chinese male judoka to win an Olympic medal. Another bronze medal went to Gwak Donghan of South Korea.
Refugee team judoka Popole Misenga and Yolande Bukasa enjoyed warm crowd support but both went out in the preliminaries. However, Misenga won his first fight and then had to face world champion Gwak in his second.
