BEIJING // The Italian Giulia Quintavalle beat Deborah van der Gravenstijn of the Netherlands in a tense struggle to win gold in the women's 57kg category. Quintavalle outscored her veteran opponent with a uko and ran down the clock to seal victory. At times the bout resembled a vigorous barn dance with both judokas skipping around the tatami with their arms tightly interlocked. But Quintavalle, who earlier knocked out Athens champion Yvonne Boenisch of Germany, kept her cool and used her height to good advantage, gradually wearing down 33-year-old Gravenstijn to emerge as Italy's first female Olympic champion judoka.
Ketleyn Quadros became the first Brazilian judoka to win an Olympic medal, beating Australia's Athens bronze medallist Maria Pekli with a waza ari score in extra time to take bronze. China's Xu Yan celebrated with a gymnastic cartwheel and flip after beating France's Barbara Harel with an automatic ippon victory to take bronze. *Reuters
