(Beijing, November 15) On the opening day of the 2007 Beijing Judo Open held at the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium, China's Xiao Jun and Li Hongye fought their way out of the women's 52kg repechage finals while Jordan Amoros of France and Giovanni Nicola Casale of Italy managed to survive in the men's 66kg.

In the women's 52kg Final of Repechage A against Germany's Mareen Krah, China's Xiao Jun took the initiative to attack and soon led with a "koka". Then the two judokas got into a seesaw. Active as they were, neither of them scored. As a result, Xiao maintained her lead of koka till the end of the match and successfully came to the scene. Another repechage final between China's Li Hongye and Japan's Yuka Nishida turned white-hot, when the two had to go into the golden-point extra. Finally, all the three referees raised their blue flags indicating the victory by Li Hongye. Thus, Xiao and Li earned two berths in the two bronze-medal contests of the women's 52kg category.

In the repechage finals of the men's 66kg, Jordan Amoros of France got the better of China's Wu Jian with a waza-ari, while another Chinese judoist Ren Jiawen was eliminated by Giovanni Nicola Casale of Italy.

Judoists who had won in repechage finals will take on the losers in the group finals for the bronze medals.