OSAKA -- Defending Olympic champion Kenzo Nakamura held down Askhat Shakharov of Kazakstan for the 73-kg crown at the Asian Judo Championships on Saturday as host Japan gained three more berths for the Sydney Olympic Games in September.
Nakamura pinned Shakharov in 2 minutes, 52 seconds to complete his run of four "ippon" victories at Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium and claim his first Asian title in four continental championships.
Japan had failed to qualify at 73 kg at last year's World Championships when Nakamura lost in the third round and was counting on the 1996 Olympic gold medalist to help fill out the roster in the sport the country considers its best hope for Olympic hardware.
In addition to Nakamura, Makoto Takimoto took a third at 81 kg with an ippon win over Taiwan's Chen Chun-ching to qualify for the Olympics, and Kie Kusakabe edged Mongolia's Erdenet-od Khishigbat for the women's 57-kg title and a trip to Sydney.
Japan picked up a third championship for the day in the women's 70-kg category when Masae Ueno swept Mongolia's Tserenkhand Dorjgoto and took her back in 3:15 of the gold medal final.
At 63 kg, however, world champion Keiko Maeda went down to South Korea's Jung Sung Sook in a second-round match, but came back for the bronze medal with an ippon win over China's Sun Xiaofang. Japan also had to settle for a bronze medal at the men's 90-kg class as Masatoshi Tobitsuka lost to Kamol Murodov of Uzbekistan in the second round, but came back to trip down Sergey Shakimov of Kazakstan in the match for third place.