Britain's Gordon lights up Olympic judo competition

Britain's Winston Gordon lit up the Olympic judo competition with a stunning throw amid a blistering start to the men's under-90kg division on Wednesday. Gordon's o-guruma (major wheel) to flatten Canada's Alexandre Emond was the pick of an impressive array of techniques. An Olympic finalist two weight categories below in Sydney 12 years ago, Brazilian Tiago Camilo followed closely behind with a flashing tai-otoshi (body drop) to beat Ukraine's Roman Gontyuk, himself twice an Olympic medallist. Gordon's next opponent Kirill Denisov of Russia also produced a lovely tai-otoshi to beat Ivan Remarenco of Moldova while Timur Bolat of Kazakhstan, who curiously was wearing pink underwear, managed a last second ippon on Egypt's Hisham Mesbah, bronze medallist in Beijing, with a huge te-guruma (pick up). There were also a few impressive throws that didn't quite score the maximum ippon but nonetheless warmed the crowd's palms, not least Greek world champion Ilias Iliadis's tsuri-goshi (lifting hip) on Slovak Milan Randl for a half-point waza-ari. Japan's second seed Masashi Nishiyama also won by waza-ari over Chingiz Mamedov of Kyrgyzstan with an ashi-guruma (leg wheel). In the women's under-70kg category former world champion Yuri Alvear of Colombia got in on the act with a delightful hiza-guruma (knee wheel) to beat Brazil's Maria Portela.