Japanese top seed Ueno crashes out of Olympics

Top seed and double world champion Yoshie Ueno crashed out of the Olympic Games on Tuesday, losing in the quarter-finals to South Korean eighth seed Joung Da-Woon. World number one in the women\'s under-63kg, Ueno had comfortably overcome her first two opponents, Garima Chaudhary of India and Croatia\'s Marijana Miskovic but she came unstuck. Joung proved too dogged for her, outworking the twice world champion and progressing with a minor yuko score. Joung wil face China\'s Xu Lili in the semi-final after the 24-year-old marched imperiously through her draw. Xu beat Brazil\'s Mariana Silva with a sweeping, winding throw (harai-maki-komi) before she pinned Italy\'s Edwige Gwend and then overcame Elisabeth Willeboordse by the maximum ippon score (a technical knock-out). On the other side of the draw Mongolia\'s Munkhzaya Tsedevsuren shocked world champion Gevrise Emane in a quarter-final that went to a judges\' decision. There seemed little doubt who would be given the victory, though, as the seventh seed had been far the busier and more attacking and indeed the judges were unanimous. Earlier she had strangled Palau\'s Jennifer Anson before throwing Johanna Ykinen of Finland with a shoulder wheel (koshi-guruma). She will face Slovenia\'s Ursula Zolnir in the last four. Zolnir was in brutal form, arm-locking all three of her opponents to force submissions and leaving each one rubbing a painful elbow at the end of the bout. In the men\'s under-81kg, top-seeded Brazilian Leandro Guilheiro was surprisingly beaten by eighth seed Travis Stevens of the United States in the quarters. Stevens pulled off a dropping shoulder throw (seoi-nage) to score a decisive half point waza-ari. Earlier he had submitted his first two opponents, armlocking Aljaz Sedej of Slovenia and strangling Georgia\'s Avtandil Tchrikishvili. He will meet reigning Olympic champion Ole Bischof of Germany in the semis. Bischof used superior ground fighting to negotiate his way to the last four, pinning Antonio Ciano of Italy and Kazakhstan\'s Islam Bozbayev before arm-locking Japan\'s Takahiro Nakai. World number two, and twice world champion, Kim Jae-Bum was far from his dazzling best but reached the semis nonetheless. The South Korean, who lost to Bischof in the final four years ago, progressed on penalties against Hungary\'s Laszlo Csoknyai and Emmanuel Lucenti of Argentina having beaten Uzbekistan\'s Yakhyo Imamov with a small yuko score from an outer reap (osoto-gari). Beijing gold medallist at under-73kg Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan was stunned in the first round by Canada\'s Antoine Valois-Fortier but he then fell in the quarters to Russia\'s Ivan Nifontov with a winding hip-throw (harai-goshi).