Midori Shintani saved the blushes for Japan by winning the women's open category Sunday, giving her country its only gold medal in women's competition at the World Judo Championships.
Shintani rebounded from an early point deficit to beat European champion Karina Bryant of Britain with a superbly executed reverse leg trip with 16 seconds left in the final as she won her first major international title.
The result capped Shintani's impressive run of ippon wins in all four matches on the final day of individual events and increased Japan's gold medal tally at the championships to three in 16 categories -- eight each for men and women.
Japan also won five silvers and three bronzes, including the bronze Yohei Takai took in the men's open class earlier in the day.