Japan take judo gold medal haul to eight

Japan's Olympic judo bonanza continues with Aaron Wolf and Shori Hamada winning their finals to take the host nation's tally to eight golds in the homegrown martial art.

It means they have already matched their judo record haul from Athens 2004.

They have won eight golds, one silver and one bronze from the first 12 judo weight classes contested, contributing greatly to the host country battling with sporting superpowers China and the US in the top three of the overall medal table.

On Thursday night, Wolf, 25, the world champion in 2017, threw South Korean Cho Gu-ham to secure a dramatic ippon victory that ended over five minutes of gruelling Golden Score sudden-death overtime in the men's 00kg final.

Wolf, whose mother is Japanese and father is from the United States, earlier beat Uzbekistan's Mukhammadkarim Khurramov to make it to the quarters, where he overcame Israel's Peter Paltchik.

In the semi-finals, Wolf beat Georgian Varlam Liparteliani, the world No.1 and Rio silver medallist, with a dynamic o-uchi-gari throw to score a waza-ari victory.

South Korea's Cho won silver, while the bronze medals went to Jorge Fonseca of Portugal and Niiaz Iliasov of the Russian Olympic Committee.

In the women's 78 kg division final, 2018 world champion Hamada defeated French world No.1 Madeleine Malonga with a quick and solid pin to win the gold medal.

Earlier, Hamada, 30, had pinned Beata Pacut of Poland for an ippon victory in the elimination round of 16, then beat Aleksandra Babintseva of the Russian Olympic Committee via sliding lapel choke to reach the semis.

Hamada, ranked two in her division, beat German Anna Maria Wagner with a cross armlock for an ippon victory in semi-finals.

The bronze medals went to Wagner and Mayra Aguiar of Brazil.