Half-Heavyweight (≤78 kilograms), Women

The three top seeded judoka in the women’s half-heavyweight category had a history of fighting each other in the finals of prestigious events. Madeleine Malonga, representing France, lost to the German Anna-Maria Wagner for the world title in 2021, but defeated Japan’s Shori Hamada in the 2019 World Championships and 2021 World Masters. However, at the Tokyo Olympics, gold went to Hamada on home soil, the first for Japan in this division since 2004. In the semi-final it took her only 1:23 min to throw Wagner with an Ude-hishigi-juji-gatame (back-lying perpendicular arm bar) for an Ippon (full point). In the final against Malonga, the end of the fight came after only 1:09 min. A misjudged attempt by Malonga allowed Hamada to surprise her with counter-attack scoring an Ippon for a Kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame (broken upper four quarter hold down). Both finallists got that far after winning all their previous contests by Ippon, with Hamada defeating four top ten seeds.

Wagner returned to claim bronze. She held on to a Waza-ari (half-point) scored after 1:50 min until the end of the fight against the Cuban Kaliema Antomarchi. Several of the highly ranked athletes like the Dutch Guusje Steenhuis, bronze medallist at the 2021 World Championships, were eliminated early and did not even make it into the top eight. Only veteran Mayra Aguiar, already a four-time Olympian, and an incredibly consistent competitor at major events, took her third bronze medal in a row pinning the Korean Yun Hyun-Ji. A heavy favourite in Rio in 2016, she had to settle for bronze but, in Tokyo, the Porto Alegre athlete won an unexpected bronze, just days before her 30th birthday.