Japanese and Mongolian judo favourites shine - Yahoo! Sports

Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar (up) fights against India's Manjeet Nandal
Miguel Medina, AFP/Getty Images

World number one Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar of Mongolia and Japanese world champion Junpei Morishita remained on course for a dream final in the under-66kg category at the World Judo Championships here on Tuesday.

Khashbaatar saw off India's Manjeet Nandal in the first round with a strangle before beating China's Liu Renwang with a half-point (waza-ari) from a sacrifical stomach throw (tomoe-nage).

Also in the early rounds Morishita impressed despite initially struggling against tough Canadian Sasha Mehmedovic.

Morishita stunned his opponent 30 seconds from the end with a full ippon score from a slick counter technique (sukeshi) to Mehmedovic's inner-thigh (uchi-mata) attack.

The Japanese was then in a class of his own against Lithuania's Vytautas Skilinskas, throwing him with uchi-mata within the first minute of the bout.

Russian third and fourth seeds Alim Gadanov and Musa Mogushkov also had no early difficulties, although the latter needed a penalty in sudden-death golden score to edge past Italy's Francesco Faraldo.

There was a disappointing return to top level competition for Britain's former under-60kg world champion Craig Fallon, fighting up a weight, who lost in the first round to Bulgaria's Martin Ivanov following a long break since the Beijing Olympics.

There were no early surprises in the men's under-60kg division either as world number one Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan reached the third round.

Following a bye in the first round the world champion beat Switzerland's Ludovic Chammartin by waza-ari following a counter pick-up technique (te-guruma).

Ukraine's 2009 world champion Georgii Zantaraia also had a first round bye before he easily pinned Hong Kong's Yu Kin Ting.

Japanese third seed Hiroaki Hiraoka had a bye before he flattened Ecuador's Jose Romero with a stunning shoulder throw (seoi-nage).

Fourth seed Hirofumi Yamamoto of Japan was forced into golden score by Mongolia's Davaadorj Tumurkhuleg before throwing him with an inner-leg sweep (ouchi-gari) for the decisive score.

Former world champion Ludwig Paischer of Austria also impressed by strangling Nijat Shikhalizada of Azerbaijan.

In the women's under-48kg division 2009 world champion Tomoko Fukumi of Japan and Romania's Olympic champion Alina Dumitru both progressed.

Fukumi armlocked Israel's Roni Schwartz while Dumitru threw both her opponents, Madina Babakulyyeva of Turkmenistan and Mongolia's Munkhbat Urantsetseg for ippon.

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