Judoka Kim Jae-bum wins gold

LONDON -- South Korean judoka Kim Jae-bum captured gold in the men's under-81-kilogram category at the London Olympics Tuesday.

At ExCeL Arena, Kim defeated Ole Bischof of Germany for his first Olympic gold in a rematch of the finals at the Beijing Olympics, avenging a close defeat from four years ago. It was South Korea's third gold medal in London.

The victory also completes judo's equivalent of a grand slam.Kim, 27, has now won the Olympics, the world championships, the Asian championships and the Asian Games at least once in his career.

Kim's path to the finals was far from smooth. He beat Uzbekistan's Yakhyo Imamov with osoto-gari, or an outer reap, but progressed through to the semis on penalties against his opponents.

Then in the semis, Kim needed seoi-nage, a dropping shoulder throw, to beat Ivan Nifontov of Russia.

Also on the judo mat Tuesday, Joung Da-woon came in fifth in the women's under-63㎏ category.

The unheralded Olympic rookie stunned the world No. 1 Yoshie Ueno in the quarterfinals, but fell to Xu Lili of China in the semis. Then the 23-year-old Korean lost to Gevrise Emane of France in the bronze medal contest in a unanimous judges' decision. (Yonhap)