Judo: Ono ends gold medal drought for Japan's men
By Chris Gallagher
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Japan's Shohei Ono won gold in the men's -73kg judo at the Rio Games on Monday, ending an anxious wait for a Japanese men's team that had not claimed Olympic gold since 2008 in Beijing.
Ono had been on a surge all day and emphatically capped his campaign with an ippon -- judo's equivalent of a knockout -- to defeat Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan.
Belgium's Dirk Van Tichelt and Georgia's Lasha Shavdatuashvili took bronze.
Ono's victory ended Japan's sequence of five judo bronze medals in Rio.
Earlier, in the women's competition on Monday, compatriot Kaori Matsumoto, who had been seen as a favourite for gold, was stunned in the semi-finals and went on to take bronze.
Japan won just one gold medal in judo at the London Games, considered an embarrassment for the birthplace of the sport, and is eager to atone in Rio.
(Reporting by Chris Gallagher, editing by Neil Robinson)