Open Class, Men

The gold and silver medalists at the last two World Championships had been the Japanese fighters Haruki Uemura and Kazuhiro Ninomiya. Ninomiya was champion in 1973 and Uemura in 1975. But only one could represent Japan in this class at Montréal, so Ninomiya lost weight to drop down to half-heavyweight. Uemura was the favorite, but was expected to face a challenge from Soviet Georgian Shota Chochishvili. They met in the pool final, with Uemura winning a safe victory by decision. Chochoshvili won his repêchage match for a bronze medal. In the final, Uemura faced Britain’s Keith Remfry, who had placed =5th in the heavyweight class. Uemura was much smaller but also much faster. At six minutes, Uemura used o-uchi-gari to throw Remfrey and then using kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame for the victory.