Brother and sister, Hifumi and Uta Abe won gold medals for Japan in their respective judo events at Tokyo Olympics. The results, within an hour of each other, added to the success of the host nation on Sunday. 

Uta Abe was first to strike gold in the women’s under-52kg category, beating Amandine Buchard in the final.  Her brother Hifumi took gold in the men’s 66kg final as the two made history as the first siblings to win gold medals on the same day. Hifumi beat Georgia’s Vazha Margvelashvili.

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Uta was taken into the Golden Score overtime by her French opponent in the final. However, the 21-year-old, who had dominated all her bouts at the 2020 Games, eventually pinned Buchard down on her back and held on for the win. The younger Abe sibling had won her semi-final bout against Italy’s Odette Giuffrida in overtime, to clinch a waza-ari victory. Uta had defeated Brazil’s Larissa Pimenta in the round of 16 and  Britain’s Chelsie Giles in the quarter-final.  The bronze medals went to Odette Giuffrida of Italy and Chelsie Giles. 

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Uta’s brother, Hifumi, on the other hand, had defeated Brazil’s Daniel Cargnin in the semi-final by ippon,  Baskhuu Yondonperenlei of Mongolia with a waza-ari in the quarter-final and Frenchman Kilian Le Blouch in the round of 16. Bronze medals went to Baul An of South Korea and Daniel Cargnin of Brazil.

The Abes’ success gave Japan its third and fourth gold medal of the day after Tokyo native Yuto Horigome took skateboarding’s first Olympic title and swimmer Yui Ohashi was the surprise winner of the women’s 400m individual medley.

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A perfectly scripted final saw Japanese world champion Yuto Horigome strike gold in a tense street competition.

The 22-year-old, who grew up just a stone’s throw from the Olympic venue, landed three huge tricks in a row to eclipse American favourite Nyjah Huston, who finished seventh.

Unheralded swimmer Yui Ohashi had sparked the Japan gold spree in an action-packed morning finals session at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.

Ohashi powered to victory in the women’s 400 individual medley, toppling Hungary’s defending champion Katinka Hosszu.

The second full day of competition saw 18 gold medals up for grabs.