Yamabe wins national judo crown to book Rio berth

YOKOHAMA – Kanae Yamabe downed rival Megumi Tachimoto for her third national judo championship title on Sunday to clinch a spot in this summer’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

In the pair’s third meeting in the final at the national championships in as many years, and this year serving as the final qualifier for Rio in the over-78-kg category, holder Tachimoto injured her left knee with under a minute remaining.

Yamabe, who won the title in 2014, scored a wazaari before pinning Tachimoto to the mat for a second wazaari to secure an ippon victory as Tachimoto was stretched off at Yokohama cultural gymnasium.

“I was really frustrated to lose last year and I’m really glad to get the title this time,” Yamabe said. “It was a battle against myself.

“I decided never to step back and give everything I had today. I just had my eyes on getting an ippon whatever I had to do.”

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

GET THE BEST OF THE JAPAN TIMES IN FIVE EASY PIECES WITH TAKE 5

LATEST MORE SPORTS STORIES

Ravens beat Jets to clinch AFC North

Only minutes removed from watching his team roll to its 10th consecutive victory, coach John Harbaugh showed up to the postgame news conference wearing a white hat proclaiming Baltimore to be AF...

Saudi Arabia to stage first women's pro golf event

Saudi Arabia will host its first professional women's golf tournament in 2020 with a prize fund of $1 million, the Ladies European Tour (LET) announced. The Jeddah Royal Greens Golf ...

Americans rally late to close gap in Presidents Cup

The International team is going so well at this Presidents Cup that it had to settle for a three-point lead after two sessions at Royal Melbourne. Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay were ...