Tokyo Olympics: Takanori Nagase becomes the -81 Kg Olympic Champion in Judo, claims fifth Gold Medal for Japan in Judo at Tokyo Olympics
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Takanori Nagase
The Japanese Judo team has been on a dream run at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. During the Rio Olympic Games 2016, Japan only won one Gold Medal in Judo but this time the performance of the Japanese Judo team has been absolutely flawless on their home turf.
The -81 Kg Judoka, Takanori Nagase claimed the fifth Gold Medal of Japan at the Tokyo Olympics by defeating Saeid Mollaei from Mongolia in the final. Nagase was the Bronze Medalist of the Rio Olympics and this time he changed the color of his medal and became Olympic Champion in -81 Kg.
Takanori Nagase defeated Vedat Albayrak from Turkey in the very first fight and moved to the next round where he faced Christian Parlati from Italy and Parlati faced the same result as his first opponent and Nagase moved to the quarterfinals.
In the quarter-final, he faced Dominic Ressel from Germany who presented him with a real tough challenge but Nagase defeated him as well. Takanori Nagase faced the current world number 1 ranked player in his weight category, Matthias Casse in the semi-finals and defeated him to rewrite history in the -81 kg weight category.
Nagase faced the Mongolian opponent, Saeid Mollaei in the finals who presented him with a real tough challenge. But he defeated him and brings the fifth Gold Medal for Japan in Judo at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Saeid Mollaei fell short in front of Takanori Nagase but captured the Silver Medal
The story of Saeid Mollaei to capture an Olympic Games Silver Medal isn’t less than a fairy tale. During the Tokyo 2019 World Championship, Mollaei was pressurized by the Israeli authorities to intentionally lose the fight so that he can avoid clashing with the Israeli World Champion, Sagi Muki in the finals.
Mollaei exposed them and then he never returned to his home country, in December 2019 he became a citizen of Mongolia and participated in the Tokyo Olympics to represent Mongolia. Mollaei defeated all the odds and captured Silver Medal in the -81 Kg weight category of Judo.
He defeated Shamil Borchashvili in the semi-finals that defeated Saki Mugi in his second fight. Although, he fell short in front of Nagase but he brings the first Silver Medal for Mongolia at the Tokyo Olympics.
Matthias Casse and Shamil Borchashvili captured Bronze Medals in the -81 Kg weight category
The current number one ranked Judoka in the -81 kg weight category; Matthias Casse defeated a very tough opponent, Tato Grigalashvili from Georgia in the fight for Bronze Medal and added the first Olympic Medal to his perfect resume.
The Austrian Judoka, Shamil Borchashvili produced a major upset in the -81 Kg weight category when he defeated the current World Champion, Sagi Muki in his second fight, and later on, he wrote his name in the books of history by defeating Dominic Ressel from Germany and winning Bronze Medal for Austria.
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Shivansh Thakur
(1173 Articles Published)