Judo: Colin Oates misses out in quest for medal

 

Jim van Wijk
Sunday 29 July 2012 23:58 BST
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British player Colin Oates lost his repêchage bout to Cho Junho
of South Korea
British player Colin Oates lost his repêchage bout to Cho Junho of South Korea

Britain's Colin Oates missed out on the chance to fight for Olympic judo bronze when he was beaten by Jun-Ho Cho of Korea in the repechage of the men's under-66kgs at ExCeL.

The roof almost came off North Arena 2 as Oates was introduced to the crowd, with hopes raised of a first British Olympic judo medal since 2000.

Both fighters soon collected passivity penalties, with Oates picking up another midway through the contest to put him behind.

Cho, world bronze medalist in 2011, then scored another Yuko to leave the Team GB fighter with an uphill battle as his gallant Olympic bid ended.

Oates had made it through to the quarter-final stage where he was beaten by Georgian Lashas Shavdatuashvili.

Norfolk judoka Oates overcame Australian Ivo Dos Santos in his opening bout.

The 29-year-old then produced a big upset to knock out world number three Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, the Mongolian bronze medallist from Athens 2004, as the partisan home crowd at North Arena 2 in ExCeL went crazy.

However, Oates - who finished a career-best fifth at the 2011 World Championships - could not then get past upcoming Georgian Shavdatuashvili, as the 20-year-old edged a tense quarter-final with a holdown in golden score.

PA

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