China's heavyweight judoka Yu vows to win Olympic title in Rio

Chinese heavyweight judoka Yu Song, winner of the world championship in 2015, is eying for an Olympic gold this summer in Rio.

Yu, 29, is the biggest medal hope for the Chinese judo team at the Olympic Games, and she has full confidence to win the women's over 78-kilogram category in Rio.

"I'm fully confident," said Yu, winner of the World Masters and Asian Championship in 2015. "I'm now the world No. 1 in rankings and I prepared very well."

"It is only two months to the Olympic Games and I will do some specific training," she added. "I'll watch the videos of my competitors and try to find their weakness."

Yu's biggest rival is defending Olympic champion, Cuba's Idalys Ortiz, who also took part in the Beijing Games in 2008 and claimed a bronze.

"Ortiz ranked No. 2 in the world, and she will be my main rival. Young judoka Maria Suelen Altheman from the host country is also hard to deal with," Yu said. "But my only goal is to win the gold medal."

For several years, China is present on the international scene in the women's over 78kg category. But four years ago in London, China's star judoka Tong Wen failed to bring the title back. Tong has been in semi-retirement since 2013 when she got married. Yu is expected to replace Tong to vie for the title in 2016 Rio Olympics.

There's another good judoka in the category. Ma Sisi, current world No. 3, has to accept that only one Chinese judoka can take part in the category at the Games.

According to Ma Xiaoxiang, heavyweight coach of the Chinese women's team, Ma Yingnan in the 52kg category and Yang Junxia in the 63kg category, are also medal hopefuls. Endit