Yoshie Ueno gave a brilliant performance, winning all of her matches by ippon en route to capturing the gold medal in the women's 63-kg category at the World Judo Championships on Friday.
Ueno, making her debut at the worlds, beat Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Elisabeth Willeboordse of the Netherlands in the final with an "awase-waza," or two-point combination for ippon.
Ueno is a younger sister of Masae Ueno, who defended her title at 70 kg at the Beijing Games last summer before retiring this year. She joined Tomoko Fukumi (48 kg) and Misato Nakamura (52 kg) as the third Japanese woman to claim a gold at these worlds.
"I am happy. I really enjoyed all my matches today. I thought the matches would be closer but my body was moving naturally," said Ueno, who claimed her spot in the worlds when she defeated Olympic champion Ayumi Tanimoto at the National Weight Class Invitational Championships in April.
In men's action, Masahiko Tomouchi was sent crashing to a shock defeat at the hands of Switzerland's Christoph Keller by osotogari in the third round of the 81-kg category.
With just two days remaining in the five-day meet, Japanese men have only managed a silver medal through Hiroaki Hiraoka at 60 kg.