By Xinhua,
Beijing : The 33-year-old Chinese judo veteran and defending champion Xian Dongmei, who gave birth to her daughter 18 months ago, won China’s first judo gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games here Sunday, stunning Kum Ae An from North Korea in the 52kg class final.
Xian flipped Kum Ae An with a yuko and a penalty koka.
The Chinese gave three ippon games in the women’s light-weight competition, which added the fifth gold medal to China at the Games.
Soraya Haddad from Algeria ousted Sholpan Kaliyeva from Kazakhstan with a waza-ari to grab a bronze medal.
Japan’s 19-year-old Nakamura, gave a koka loss to Kum Ae An at semifinal, made a struggling way to the final after a gold-score game and later ipponed South Korean Kyung Ok Kim for another bronze medal of the star-studded Japanese judo squad.
After a bye in her first bout, Xian had a perfect start in which she ipponed Spanish Ana Carrascosa by directly pushing the opponent to the mat with just 1 minute and 19 seconds.
Meeting world champion silver medallist Telma Monteiro of Portugal in the next, Xian conceded an early yuko but rallied to tie waves of attacks. Leading another koka advantage with 45 seconds left in the five-minute bout, she shoulder throwed the Portuguese to the mat with a decision of waza-ari by the referee who soon rectified to gesture an ippon victory.
At the semifinal, Xian jumped on Soraya Haddad, world broze medallist in 2005, and again shoulder throwed the opponent to win another ippon.