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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: South Korea's Ki-Chun Wang retained his -73kg title at the world judo championships on Thursday while Japan's Misato Nakamura clinched the women's -52kg crown.
Olympic Games silver medallist Wang was the favourite going into the tournament having won the Paris and Moscow Grand Slam titles this season and claimed his victory over North Korea's Kim Choi Su.
"Once you are fighting, the nationality of your rival is of no importance," said Wang of an opponent who has now won North Korea's third world medal after 10 years of failure.
Wang, just 20, had lost to Elnur Mammadli in the Olympic final last year, but the Azerbaijan judoka was missing from the tournament which cleared the way for the Korean star who had also been first in Tokyo and in the World University Games in 2009.
Wang, who two years ago became the second youngest-ever world champion, reached the semi-final by defeating Sezer Huysuz of Turkey.
Nakamura, who saw off Chinese favourite Hongmei He in the quarter-finals, added world gold to her bronze medal from the Beijing Olympics.
She achieved victory with a waza-ari over Cuba's Yanet Bermoy, who had been world champion in the -48kg class in 2005 and was silver medallist in 2007.
In the men's -57kg division, France's Morgane Ribout took gold, beating Telma Monteiro of Portugal with a yuko. - AFP/de
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