Olympics round-up

Judo gold for Japan: Japan’s Kaori Matsumoto won Olympic gold over Romanian Corina Caprioriu after the latter was disqualified during the Golden Score period in the women’s under-57kg final yesterday. Caprioriu was penalised for trying to hold Matsumoto’s leg to flip over the Japanese. Defeated semi-finalist Marti Malloy won the bronze medal after beating defending Olympic champion Giulia Quintavalle from Italy.

Sit-down protest: South Korea fencer Shin A-Lam staged a dramatic sit-down protest for more than an hour after losing a controversial epee semi-final yesterday. A tearful Shin refused to leave the piste after her 6-5 defeat by Germany’s Britta Heidemann as her coach continued to object to the result. The two fencers had been locked at 5-5 inside the extra minute period. The German then scored what she thought was the winning hit, but the Korean coach claimed the assault came after the last second second on the clock was up. After more than 20 minutes of talks, victory was awarded to Heidemann and Shin collapsed onto the floor in tears.

Ticket touts arrested: British police said they had arrested 29 people on suspicion of ticket-touting since the start of the Olympic Games. Eleven of those have been charged with the offence including a German man, 57, and a Slovakian woman, 30. The arrests came as Olympics organisers sought to quell concerns over empty seats by making thousands more tickets available. Separately police said they had arrested three men on suspicion of posing as plainclothes police officers in order to steal cash or credit cards.

Roddick through: Andy Roddick set up a tennic clash with Novak Djokovic as the three-time Wimbledon runner-up defeated Martin Klizan 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Games yesterday. Roddick will meet 2011 Wimbledon winner Djokovic for a place in the last 16 following the American’s gritty victory over Slovakia’s Klizan in a match held over from Sunday due to rain.

Bite on the mat: Greek judo champion Ioulietta Boukouvala claims she was bitten by her Cuban opponent after losing in the first round of the London Olympic Games yesterday. The 29-year-old was quoted on Greek sports websites as saying Yurileidys Lupetey Cobas, who went on to win the contest, bit her on the hand and that she should have been penalised. “I feel that injustice was done, that I was robbed. What can I say, I could be wrong. God will be my judge,” Boukouvala said.

No doping, Ye insists: Sixteen-year-old Chinese swimming prodigy Ye Shiwen categorically denied doping yesterday after British media raised suspicions about her world record-breaking start to the London Olympics. Ye shattered Stephanie Rice’s mark in the women’s 400m individual medley by more than a second, including an astonishing final lap which was faster than Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps in the men’s competition. “There is no problem with doping, the Chinese team has a firm policy so there is no problem with that,” Ye said.

Kim sets weightlifting marks: North Korean Kim Un-Guk equalled one world record in the snatch and broke another in the total to set up an emphatic victory in the men’s -62kg weightlifting class last night. Kim snatched 153kg, also a new Olympic record, to match Chinese lifter Shi Zhiyong’s world record, and then went on to clean and jerk 174kg for a combined total of 327kg, beating the previous record held by China’s Zhang Jie by 1kg. Colombian Oscar Figueroa claimed a shock silver with a total of 317kg (140, 177), his clean and jerk a new Olympic record, while Indonesia’s Irawan Eko Yuli took bronze with 317kg (145, 172) on the bodyweight rule.