It was a bad day for the top seeds as Russia’s Musa Mogushkov and Bundmaa Munkhbaatar of Mongolia both crashed out early in the Olympic judo competition on Sunday.
Mogushkov, a bronze medallist at the World Championships last year, was the first to fall in the men’s under-66kg category to Azerbaijan’s Tarlan Karimov.
Mogushkov was actually ranked number two in the world when he was selected for the Games ahead of the only man above him in the rankings, Alim Gadanov.
His defeat comes just a day after Russia had won their first Olympic judo gold medal since the break-up of the former Soviet Union in the under-60kg division through Arsen Galstyan.
The two fighters were level going into a period of golden score where Karimov countered a Mogushkov attack to land the decisive point.
Second seed Tsagaanbataar Khashbaatar of Mongolia was also beaten early as he was caught with a valley drop (tani-otoshi) counter by home favourite Colin Oates in his second bout.
But world champion Masashi Ebinuma, the third seed, breezed past Canada’s Sasha Mehmedovic before squeezing past Kazakhstan’s Sergey Lim in golden score.
He then reached the semis following a highly controversial clash with Cho Jun-Ho of South Korea.
The bout remained scoreless following golden score and although all three judges on the mat originally awarded the bout to Cho, the International Judo Federation Referees Commission overturned that decision and Ebinuma progressed.
He will fight Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia, who beat Oates in the quarter-finals, in the last four.
On the other side of the draw, Sugoi Uarte of Spain beat Karimov to reach the semis where he will meet three-time European champion Miklos Ungvari of Hungary.
