Japanese women dominate at Tokyo Grand Slam judo

TOKYO — Japanese women completed a sweep of seven weight categories but their male counterparts fell short with both Keiji Suzuki and Takamasa Anai losing in their respective finals on the last day of the Tokyo Grand Slam meet on Sunday.

Athens Olympic champion Suzuki, battling in the men’s over-100 kilogram class, was sent to defeat with an ippon by countryman Kazuhiko Takahashi, who dumped his opponent with an outer-leg trip at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Anai, the world bronze medalist who won his first national open-weight title in April, lost in the men’s 100-kg class on points to Hwang Hee Tae of South Korea.

It was a bitter defeat as Anai had won all four of his matches by ippon only to fall to Hwang, who pulled out his leg to score a ‘‘yuko’’ point with both judoka tied with ‘‘waza-ari’’ with just 15 seconds remaining in the match.

World champion Tomoko Fukumi beat countrywoman Kaori Kondo at 48 kg, while Misato Nakamura, world champion at 52 kg, also cruised to victory. Hitomi Tokuhisa emerged the winner over Japanese compatriot Kaori Matsumoto at 57 kg.


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