NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Japanese siblings Mitsuki and Hayato Kondo won gold within half an hour of each other as judo began at the 2026 Asian Games on Wednesday, while China collected three bronze medals.
Mitsuki, 21, set the family celebration in motion with an ippon victory over Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova in the women's 48kg final.
Her elder brother followed in the men's 60kg final against Kazakhstan's Yeldos Smetov, the 2024 Paris Olympic champion. Hayato scored a yuko midway through the contest and added another in the closing minutes before surviving Smetov's late attack to secure Japan's second judo title of the day.
"Mitsuki is a strong player so I expected her to win. When I actually saw her accomplish that right in front of me, it really pressed a switch in me and got me fired-up. I was like 'All right, let's go.'" Hayato said.
The Kondo siblings claimed two of the four golds on offer at the Aichi International Arena. Mongolia's Yolk Kazirbyek won the men's 66kg title, his country's first judo gold of the Games, while Uzbekistan's Sita Kadamboeva was crowned in the women's 52kg.
China's Ma Yulin, beaten by Hayato Kondo in the quarterfinals, returned to face defending champion Yang Yung-wei of Chinese Taipei for the bronze.
Neither scored in regulation time. After a lengthy golden score contest, Ma countered Yang's attack for a waza-ari, ending the bout after 12 minutes and 49 seconds.
China collected two more bronzes. Xue Ziyang beat Kazakhstan's Gusman Kyrgyzbayev in the bronze medal match of the men's 66kg division, while Xu Aoyu defeated Mongolia's Uranzaya Bayanmunkh in the women's 52kg category.
"I'm pretty satisfied with the third place finish," Xu said. "It's my first Asian Games, The first major international competition I've participated in. I want to keep working and keep getting better results."
Five more individual titles will be decided on Thursday. ■
