Gomez and Yanping retain judo crowns

“Unbelievable, I can't even think of a word. I'm overwhelmed by the experience.”

Maria del Carmen Herrera Gomez and Yuan Yanping become the only judokas to defend a title at London 2012 on a memorable final day of competition.

The pair did what no male was able to in retaining their titles.

Antonio Tenorio really seemed to struggle with the pace of competition in his final two bouts of the day in the -100kg division. The five time Paralympian who has won four Paralympic judo titles going back to Atlanta 1996 could only manage a bronze, after falling foul of his Russian opponent Vladimir Fedin in the first round.

Tenorio would eventually share the third step of the podium with Fedin but not for three more rounds. Tenorio quickly dispatched Sahas Srijarung of Thailand with a huge throw to achieve ippon and pass through to the repechage final.

Tenorio seemed to be physically drained in both of his last two contests, only scoring one yuko in the repechage final, with the rest of his points in both bouts coming from penalties. As he won the bronze, exhaustion was more apparent on his face than anything else, but regardless the now five time Paralympian is set on continuing his career with five Paralympic medals under his belt until his home games in 2016.

Sam Ingram becomes GB’s most successful judoka of the London 2012 Paralympic Games but just fell at the last hurdle against Jorge Hierrezuelo Marcillis in a hard fought gold medal contest decided by just one yuko. Ingram has however succeeded in going one better in these games by upgrading his bronze from Beijing to silver in the -90kg division.

Support was just as strong in ExCeL for Ingram’s brother Joe Ingram, who fell in the repechage final of the -100kg division against Oliver Upmann, who achieved ippon to take him out of the competition in less than a minute. Ingram said the event in itself was something to behold.

“Unbelievable, I can't even think of a word,” he said. “I'm overwhelmed by the experience.”

Maria del Carmen Herrera Gomez showed a phenomenally aggressive display throughout the entire -70kg competition and seemed to remain consistently on the front foot against all her competitors. The Spaniard successfully defended her title for the second time with two strong waza-aris in the second and fourth minutes of the contest.

Tatiana Savostyanova of Russia had little in reply apart from giving a yuko away due to penalties. Savostyanova has however improved on her previous two bronze medals from Athens and Beijing by adding silver to her collection.

Choi Gwang-Geun of Korea seemed in confident spirit as he took the mat in his final contest of London 2012. Less than a minute later we learnt that that confidence was not misappropriated as he dealt a punishing ippon to the American Myles Porter.

Choi sparked a quick succession of ippons that saw all of the remaining gold medal finals settled in less than a minute.

Yuan Yanping of China took a shocking victory over Turkish Nazan Azin throwing her to ground for ippon in just five seconds in the +70kg division.

Her feat could not be matched by her countryman Wang Song in the men’s +100kg division. Wang seemed to struggle from early on losing his grip in the opening exchanges, and like the two finals before it, it was over before it really began. Kento Masaki of Japan threw strongly to achieve ippon 53 seconds after the beginning of the bout to send the Beijing silver medallist home with another.

The most amazing thing about the London 2012 Paralympic Games judo competition has to be the success of debut judokas or judokas who have not medalled before. Only two judoka succeeded to defend their titles, both on the last day.

Most shockingly of all, all the defending male judokas failed to even reach their respective gold medal finals, including the four time champion Tenorio. If the competition leaves us with any parting message it is that Paralympic judo has a very strong future.