(Beijing, November 15) The opening day of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Beijing Judo Open saw Russia's Alim Gadanov and Caroline Lantoine of France winning the men's 66kg and women's 52kg titles respectively while host China taking two bronzes through Liu Changchun and Xiao Jun.

Altogether 114 judoists from 16 member associations of the International Judo Federation participate in the tournament featuring four classes, namely men's 66kg and 81kg, and women's 52kg and 63kg. The two events contested today were the men's 66kg class and the women's 52kg class.

Alim Gadanov was pitted against Japan's Uchishiba Masato in the men's 66kg final. Prior to that, Uchishiba Masato, gold medalist at the Athens Olympic Games, had been on plain sailing, beating four Chinese opponents in a row, namely Liu Zhenzhao, Wu Jian, Liu Xiaoya and Liu Changchun, with his absolute technical superiority. Compared with the Japanese Olympic champion, Alim Gadanov's path to promotion seemed to be "built on thin ice". In his match with China's Qu Guannan in the second round, the Russian managed to win with a mere "waza-ari' gained in the last minute; and in the group final with Brazil's Leandro Cunhal, all he had was just a "koka". That was why Alim Gadanov put up a tight defense in front of his Japanese opponent's attacks. Fortunately, the Russia judoist seized an opportunity to win a "yuko" 20 seconds before the end of the match and managed to maintain his slight superiority till he eventually won the title.

The two bronze medals in the men's 66kg went to China's Liu Changchun and Italy's Giovanni Nicola Casale respectively.

In the women's 52kg, Caroline Lantoine of France and Erika Miranda of Brazil placed one-two. Although none of the Chinese competitors survived in the group heats, Xiao Jun managed to come back to the scene in the repechage final, thanks to the special rules of the judo competition, and dramatically took a bronze medal after beating Mongolia's Bundmaa Munkhbaatar with an "ippon".

As Gao Lanjie, deputy competition manager of the venue team, put it, The Beijing Open aims to test the abilities of the organizers rather than the athletic levels of the judoists. Due to the upcoming World Team Championships, he said, few IJF member associations had sent their mainstay to the Beijing Open. However, despite the lack of top judoists the opening day of the tournament still saw many "ippons", to the great surprise of all.