Menezes secures Judo gold (From thisisoxfordshire)

Menezes secures Judo gold

4:36pm Saturday 28th July 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Brazil's Sarah Menezes beat defending Olympic champion Alina Dumitru of Romania to claim Olympic gold in the women's extra-lightweight under-48kg category at ExCeL.

Dumitru, set to retire after the London Games, had earlier seen off the challenge of two-time world silver medallist Tomoko Fukumi in the semi-final.

However, Menezes gradually got on top of what was a tight encounter, landing a crucial scoring throw with under a minute left and followed with another in the closing stages to secure the Olympic title.

Top seed Fukumi left empty-handed after she was beaten on golden score in the bronze-medal fight-off by Eva Csernoviczki of Hungary, who had been strangled unconscious during an earlier bout.

Charline van Snick of Belgium claimed the other third place after overcoming Argentina fighter Paula Pareto, also in sudden death, on golden score.