Shohei Ono went back-to-back as Olympic men's 73-kilogram judo champion at the Tokyo Games on Monday following a golden-score victory over Georgia's Lasha Shavdatuashvili.
The 29-year-old Ono had looked unbeatable on the way to gold-medal match at Nippon Budokan, but had to dig deep against Shavdatuashvili to defend the title he won five years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
With the match having entered sudden death, Ono was in danger of disqualification after picking up his second shido penalty. A third would have handed the bout to Shavdatuashvili, winner of 66-kg gold at the 2012 London Games.