Veteran heavyweight judoka Yoshinori Shimode defeated world bronze medalist Alexander Mikhaylin of Russia on Sunday on his way to his first title at the Kano Cup international men's judo competition.
Makoto Takimoto, gold medalist in the 81-kg class at the Sydney Olympics, was unable to overcome a heavyweight opponent and was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the open-category event at Nippon Budokan.
Shimode, at 31 the oldest Japanese entry, pulled off an ippon win against Mikhaylin with a stranglehold one minute, 44 seconds into their semifinal and then sealed his title with a yusei victory over Tadataka Egami in the final.