Paris ¨C Ryuju Nagayama¡¯s run for gold at the Paris Olympics ended in controversial fashion on Saturday.
Nagayama lost to Spain¡¯s Francisco Garrigos in the quarterfinal round of the men¡¯s under-60 kg competition, and expressed his frustration and disbelief at the result by refusing to leave the mat at Champ de Mars Arena.
He later regrouped to win the repechage and third-place match to earn a bronze medal.
¡°Naohisa Takato, who is here, won the gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and I feel a lot of regret that I didn¡¯t win as well,¡± Nagayama said.
Garrigos defeated the 28-year-old Nagayama via ippon after a chokehold.
The ruling came despite it appearing that Garrigos maintained the choke after the referee called mate (wait), a point when a judoka is supposed to release a hold.
Nagayama did not agree with the call to award Garrigos the ippon. He gave a disbelieving shrug after the decision and refused to shake hands with the Spaniard or leave the mat. He appeared to make the hand gestures used to call for a replay review at one point.
Nagayama eventually bowed to the mat and stepped down. He stayed in the arena for a little longer before finally leaving.
Nagayama, a two-time world championship bronze medalist, won the repechage against Yang Yung-wei of Taiwan before claiming a bronze medal with a victory over Turkey¡¯s Salih Yildiz.
Garrigos advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to the eventual gold medalist, Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan. Garrigos, like Nagayama, won his third-place bout to claim a bronze medal.
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