Japan's Tsukasa Yoshida had her judo gold medal bid thwarted Monday at the Tokyo Olympics, but managed to find her way onto the podium with a bronze medal.
The 2018 world champion lost to Kosovo's Nora Gjakova, the eventual gold medalist, in the women's 57-kilogram semifinals before topping Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia in the bronze-medal bout.
Fighting in her first Olympics, Yoshida earned an ippon victory over Liparteliani after throwing the former junior world champion to the mat twice with uchi-mata.
"I was absolutely determined to win the bronze medal," said a tearful Yoshida.
"I had been aiming for the gold medal, I'm so gutted."
