By Tetsushi Kajimoto
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Aaron Wolf and Shori Hamada powered through to the judo semi-finals on Thursday as the host nation looks to add to its tally of six golds from the sport at the Tokyo Games.
Wolf, 25, world champion in 2017 and a specialist in ouchi-gari and uchi-mata throws, defeated Israel’s Peter Paltchik by throwing and pinning him to score an ippon victory with the two waza-aris to reach the men’s -100kg semi-finals.
Wolf, whose mother is Japanese and father is from the United States, handily beat Uzbekistani Mukhammadkarim Khurramov by uki-waza floating throw for an ippon win to make it to quarters.
Wolf will next meet Georgian Varlam Liparteliani, who beat Egypt’s Ramadan Darwish and Canadian Shady Elnahas on his way to the semi-finals.
Also advancing in the men’s competition was twice world champion Jorge Fonseca of Portugal. He defeated Niiaz Iliasov of the Russian Olympic Committee team to set up a semi-final with South Korean Cho Gu-ham, who reached the semis with wins over Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj and Karl-Richard Frey of Germany.
In the women’s -78 kg division, 2018 world champion Hamada pinned Beata Pacut of Poland for an ippon victory in the elimination round of 16.
Hamada then beat Aleksandra Babintseva of the Russian Olympic Committee via sliding lapel choke to reach the semis.
French world number one Madeleine Malonga beat Cuban Kaliema Antomarchi in the quarter-finals with an ippon throw in Golden Score overtime while German Anna Maria Wagner defeated Mayra Aguiar of Brazil to reach the semis.
South Korean Yoon Hyun-ji beat the Netherlands Guusje Steenhuis to book her spot in the semi-final.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
