Judo favourites stay on course at world champs

Favourites Ilias Iliadis of Greece and Japan's Takashi Ono remained on course for a dream final at the Judo World Championships at the Palais Omnisport de Bercy here on Friday. Reigning champion Iliadis started slowly in the defence of his under-90kg title before squeezing past Poland's Robert Krawczyk by a penalty. He picked things up in the next round against Algeria's Lyes Bouyakoub whom he pinned for victory. And that was when he really started to find his rhythm as he threw Moldova's Ivan Remarenco with a stunning standing shoulder throw (ippon-seoi-nage) and then dumped Brazil's Hugo Pessanha with a counter-sweep (kosoto-gake). In the afternoon's semi-finals he will meet Russian Kiril Denisov who shocked 2009 world champion Lee Kyu-Won of South Korea in the quarter-finals. Lee appeared to be dominating until Denisov caught him with kosoto-gake and put him flat on his back. Incredulous, Lee took an age to get back onto his feet, seemingly running over in his mind how he'd thrown away the bout. Masters champion in 2010 and world number two Ono was also slow off the mark as he needed a sudden death period of golden score to get past France's Yves Matthieu Dafreville, also by a penalty. He then threw Sweden's Marcus Nyman for a half point waza-ari with an inner leg reap (ouchi-gari) and saw off Slovakia's Milan Randl with another inner reap (kouchi-gari), also by a waza-ari score. In the quarter-final he took advantage of Ukrainian Valentyn Grekov's desperation when chasing the fight to whip underneath him and flip him over with a shoulder throw (seoi-nage). World number three Daiki Nishiyama of Japan was far from impressive against Georgia's Varlam Liparteliani before finding progress against Lithuania's Karolis Bauza somewhat easier. He then flattened Olympic finalist Amar Benikhlef of Algeria with a brilliant ouchi-gari before narrowly ousting Cuba's Asley Gonzalez on a penalty to set up an all-Japan semi-final. World champion Lucie Decosse was in imperious form at under-70kg as she pinned Angola's Antonia Moreira and then threw Linda Bolder of the Netherlands with an inner thigh technique (uchi-mata). Most striking, though, was her ouchi-gari after just 25 seconds of her last 16 clash to dispatch Russia's Anastasia Gubadova before North Korea's Sol Kyong succumbed to the same technique. Former world champion and world number two Edith Bosch of the Netherlands had little problem disposing of Kazakhstan's Marian Urdabayeva but then needed a judges' decision to oust China's Chen Fei. She threw Ukraine's Nataliya Smal with an outer sweep (osoto-gari) and levelled Slovenia's Rasa Sraka for ippon in the last second of their bout. Hungary's twice world finalist Anett Meszaros upset world number four Yoriko Kunihara of Japan in the quarter-finals and will face Decosse in the afternoon. World number three Hwang Ye-Sul of South Korea had to retire injured against Ecuador's Vanessa Chala with Cuba's Onix Cortes Aldama emerging from that quarter of the draw. World under-78kg champion Kayla Harrison of the United States beat Japan's Hitomi Ikeda to set up a semi-final against France's European champion Audrey Tcheumeo who produced a sumptuous foot sweep (sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi) to beat Germany's Heide Wollert in the quarters. World number one Akari Ogata of Japan edged out 2009 world champion Marhinde Verkerk of the Netherlands to set up a semi-final against in-form Mayra Aguilar of Brazil, the runner up last year. Japan still lead the medals table with five gold from eight categories while France, South Korea and Uzbekistan have one each.