Jorge Fonseca claimed Portugal’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics, winning the bronze medal in the under-100kg category at the Judo Championships.
In the match that decided the third place, the Portuguese judoka beat Canadian Shadi Al-Nahhas, through Waza Ari, in a close match, in which Jorge Fonseca succeeded in the last moments, on the verge of being excluded from the penalty shootout.
moment of opening
Bravo, Jorge Fonseca! ?? #I’m an Olympian
?? Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/8ZpBZrY7B3Portugal Sports Club. (Sporting_CP) 29 July 2021
“I worked in gold and got bronze. She didn’t go as well as I wanted, and now she’s working on winning the gold in Paris. I work for gold, not bronze, and I will continue to work because I want to be the best in the national sport,” he told RTP at the end of the fight.
On his way to the bronze medal, Jorge Fonseca beat Belgium’s Toma Nikiforov and Russia’s Niaz Ilyasov, but ended up losing to Korea’s Guham Cho in the match that allowed him to reach the final.
This is the third Olympic medal for national judo after the bronze medals won by Nuno Delgado and Thelma Montero at the 2000 Sydney Games, and Thelma Montero in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
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