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Rafaela Silva wins Brazil's first gold medal at Rio Olympics

Xinhua, August 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Rafaela Silva delivered the first gold medal for the host country when she won the judo women's 57kg at the Rio Olympic Games on Monday.

The 24-year-old Rio native beat Mongolia's Sumiya Dorjsuren in the category's final. Silva scored waza-ari over Dorjsuren with a throw a little over a minute into the final and was able to hold on to that lead amid cheering from the stands.

Born in the notorious City of God community in Rio, Rafaela had the strong support of the fans in the Carioca Arena 2.

"I'm very happy about the result. I've been training a lot these last few years and the results are showing," Silva said.

"I want to thank everyone who cheered for me. The people who saw my suffering daily know I did not like to train. But I think no one has trained more than me in this Olympic cycle," said the champion.

London Olympic Games champion Kaori Matsumoto of Japan had to content herself with bronze this time after losing to Dorjsuren in the semifinal. Telma Monteiro of Poland claimed the other bronze medal.

Shohei Ono took gold for Japan in the men's 73kg.

In the final, two-time world champion Ono dominated Rustam Orujov of Azerbaijan, throwing him first for waza-ari and then for ippon with under two minutes to go. Ono had looked strong all day, winning all matches except the quarterfinal ahead of time by ippon.

Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia and Dirk Van Tichelt of Belgium captured the bronze medal. Endit