SYDNEY -- The closest thing to Kosei Inoue's heart as he took to the winner's podium Thursday night was not that he had won Olympic gold but that he had fulfilled his mother's dying wish.

Underneath his judo jacket he clutched a photograph of his late mother, Kazuko, who died in June last year, aged 51.

And as he was crowned Olympic under-100-kg champion, instead of the precious medal, it was the photograph that was hoisted high in the hands of the reigning world champion.