Gibbons wins Silver in Judo
02/08/2012 -David Cameron and Vadamir Putin were in the audience to watch Gemma Gibbons win Britain’s first Olympic medal in Judo for 12 years. The Londoner won silver but was beaten by USA’s Kayla Harrison in the final of the women’s -78kg category.
Just one day after the British Judo chairman Densign White criticised Team GB’s judokas in the London games, Gemma Gibbons fought her way into the women's -78kg final and won silver at the ExCel Exhibition Centre. The Londoner won a string of nail biting fights, including beating number one seed Audrey Tcheumeo of France in the semi-finals, as she defied the odds of her low seeding. It added to a great medal haul for Great Britain in day 6 of the games which has seen them win two gold medals and three silver (with possibly more in the evening events).
Gibbons started her day defeating Yahima Ramirez of Portugal by throwing her opponent for Ippon with an Uchi-mata. In the second round she faced Lkhamdegd Purevjargal of Mongolia. It was a tense fight with both competitors scoring a Yoko early on. The tied match appeared to be going into Golden Score but Gibbons threw her opponent for another Yoko in the final second of regular time, winning her the bout.
The Brit then went on to face Marhinde Verkerk of Netherlands in the quarter finals. She once again left it late, scoring a waza-ari with a O-uchi-gari with only six seconds of the bout left. This put her in the semi-final where she had to fight the top seeded Tcheumeo. The fight went to Golden Score where Gibbon scored an Ippon with a fantastic Uchi-Mata.
Gibbons faced Harrison in the final, guaranteeing her Britain’s first Olympic judo medal since 2000, when silver was won by Gibbons’ coach Katie Howie in Sydney. The American scored a Yuko a minute into the fight with a Tsuri-goshi. Undeterred, Gibbons fought back but the American scored her second Yuko with a Kubi-nage with a minute left in the bout. Harrison held on to her lead, giving USA its first Judo gold medal in the history of the games.
David Cameron ran down to congratulate Gibbons, who had won Team GB 6th silver of the games.
The Bronze medals in the women’s -78kg category were won by Mayra Aguiar of Brazil and Tcheumeo of France.
In the men’s -100 kg Team GB’s James Austin was beaten in the first round by Takamasa Anai of Japan. The gold was won by Tagir Khaibulaev of Russia, defeating Tuvshinbayar Naidan of Mongolia. The Bronze medals went to Henk Grol of the Netherlands and Dimitri Peters of Germany.
Olympic Judo medals day 6
Women’s -78kg category
Gold: Kayla Harrison (USA)
Silver: Gemma Gibbons (Great Britain)
Bronze: Mayra Aguiar (Brazil), Audrey Tcheumeo (France)
Men’s -100kg category
Gold: Tagir Khaibulaev (Russia)
Silver: Tuvshinbayar Naidan (Mongolia)
Bronze: Henk Grol (Netherlands), Dimitri Peters (Germany)
