India’s impressive showing on the mat continued on Saturday, August 1, as Unnati Sharma clinched a bronze medal in the women’s 63kg judo event by overcoming South Africa’s Skye Knoester. Her victory added a fourth medal to India's judo haul at the Games, following a stellar Friday where Asmita Dey and Harsh Singh captured gold, and Yamini Mourya took silver.
India's Unnati Sharma takes away bronze in judo
Unnati launched her tournament in explosive fashion, making short work of Eswatini’s Lamulela Magagula in the Round of 16. Executing back-to-back waza-aris, she sealed an ippon win in a brisk 99 seconds. She carried that momentum into a tight quarter-final clash against New Zealand’s Qona Christie, using a waza-ari and a yuko to punch her ticket to the semi-finals.
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India’s hopes for another medal remain alive through Harsh Tokas, who is set to compete for bronze in the men’s -81kg division later this evening. After a tight opening setback, falling 0-1 to Cyprus’ Odysseas Georgakis on a single yuko—Tokas rebounded strongly in the repechage, overcoming Peniamina Percival to put himself back in podium contention.
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Karanjit Singh Mann's campaign ends
Meanwhile, Karanjit Singh Mann saw his campaign come to an end in the men’s -90kg bracket. After an impressive start where he dispatched New Zealand’s Elliott Connolly via ippon in three minutes and 29 seconds, Mann was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Canada’s Guillaume Gaulin, who scored an ippon victory. Mann’s repechage bid was subsequently halted by local favorite Scott Cusack.
Over in the women’s -70kg division, Inunganbi Takhellambam was knocked out of main contention by Canada’s Charlie Thibault, who followed up an early yuko with a game-ending ippon at the 3:23 mark. Handed a second chance in the repechage against England’s Jemima Yeats-Brown, Takhellambam was unable to turn the match around to advance.