Extra-Lightweight (≤60 kilograms), Men

One of the major upsets of the 2016 Judo competition was the victory of Russia’s Beslan Mudranov, who won his country’s first gold medal in Rio. In the quarter-finals he met top-seeded Kim Won-Jin from Korea and scored a decisive Ippon (full point) with Ura-nage (back throw) after 4:33 min. The 30-year-old Mudranov was only ranked 16, but was by no means an unknown. He was the silver medalist at the 2014 World Championships and took the title at the 2012 and 2014 European Championships, as well as at the 2015 European Games. Kim had to go home empty handed after being defeated by Japan’s Naohisa Takato in the bronze medal bout. The second bronze medal went to Uzbek Diyorbek Urozboev. In the final, number four ranked Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan and Mudranov received neither a score nor a penalty during the full normal contest time of 5 minutes. But 0:44 min into the Golden Score period, Mudranov applied a Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi (Propping and drawing ankle throw) which gave him the decisive Waza-ari (half point).