For the third time in the last four Olympic games, Japan has taken the gold medal in the women’s half lightweight (70 kg) judo competition.
Haruka Tachimoto defeated Colombia’s Yuri Alvear by ippon just over two minutes into the match. Tachimoto defeated the top two ranked women in the world on her way to gold, defeating Kim Polling of the Netherlands (ranked #1) in the Round of 16 and the second-ranked Alvear in the gold medal match. Alvear, who is Colombia’s lone medalist in women’s judo in the nation’s history, took bronze in this weight class in London four years ago.
Winning the bronze medal matches were Great Britain’s Sally Conway and Germany’s Laura Koch.
Tachimoto was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the women’s 70 kg competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics.