Olympics-Judo-Kotsoiev, Bellandi land golds as Israel opens Games account
Zelym Kotsoiev of Azerbaijan and Italian Alice Bellandi both won gold in a dramatic judo competition at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, while Israel claimed its first two medals of the Games.
Russian-born world champion Kotsoiev beat Georgian Ilia Sulamanidze in the under 100kg final before world number one Bellandi downed Israeli Inbar Lanir, the 2023 world champion, to claim the women's under 78kg crown.
"I am feeling euphoric ... it took me a while to get there and now it is like being in a dream and frankly I don’t want to wake up", said Kostoiev, now a European, World and Olympic champion.
Bellandi finished the fight with a bloody mouth but still shared a hug with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was in the stands wearing a blue "Italia" t-shirt.
"I'm still a little bit speechless. I don't know. I don't really understand if this is real or I'm still dreaming because I dreamt about this every single night. And how can I say? Today was just a perfect day", said the world number one.
Lanir's silver was Israel's second medal of the day, and of the Paris Games, after Peter Paltchik earlier won a bronze medal match with a dramatic finale.
Paltchik, one of Israel's flagbearers at last week's opening ceremony, was leading world number 14 Daniel Eich of Switzerland 1-0 when he was penalised with a third shido five seconds before the end of the bout.
That should have meant the end of the contest with the bronze medal going to the Swiss, but the decision was overturned on reference to the video refereeing system and Paltchik was awarded the win.
"When it happened I knew it was a mistake, I stayed calm, I respect the referees, they are humans like you and I. Sometimes there are mistakes," Paltchik said. "It was the longest five seconds I have ever had."
Paltchik shared a warm embrace with Eich and celebrated his second Olympic medal -- he won a mixed team bronze with Lanir in Tokyo -- with a band of compatriots in the stands.
"Crazy crowd, thank you to all the crowd that came all the way from Israel to cheer for me, to be with me during this," he said.
"It was history for me and I hope I made their day."
Lanir added: "I could hear the audience, the Israeli audience during the whole day. It was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed every moment of it."
Muzaffarbek Turoboyev of Uzbekistan also took a bronze medal along with Ma Zhenzhao of China and Portugal's Patricia Sampaio in the women's class.
Tokyo champion Aaron Wolf earlier lost his under 100kg crown when he conceded an early waza-ari to Sulamanidze and bowed out in the quarter-finals.
Early eliminations for French judokas Madeleine Malonga and Aurelien Diesse were a disappointment to the 8,000 spectators packed into the Champs-de-Mars Arena.
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