Uchkun Kuranbaev claims first gold for Uzbekistan in 2020 Paralympics

In the last bout of Day 1, there was high drama in the final of the men’s judo -66kg when Uzbekistan’s Uchkun Kuranbaev claimed the gold medal in the Nippon Budokan at Tokyo 2020.

Spain’s Sergio Banon, 22, a European Championship silver medallist, objected to his opponent being awarded a Waza-ari and left the mat before the pair and the referee had bowed to the judges.

The bout had been evenly matched and had gone to a golden score before Kuranbaev closed it out at 4:27.

The first of the bronze medal bouts was won by Japan’s SETO Yujiro and the second and the second to Azerbaijain’s Namig Abasli.