The women's -63kg Judo competition reached a dramatic climax at the Workers' Gymnasium on Monday, September 8, when Naomi Soazo of Venezuela defeated Marta Arce (Spain) after just three seconds to win the gold.
The Venezuelan caught Arce, the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games silver medalist, off guard and quickly threw her for ippon.
Soazo, who was third at the 2007 IBSA World Championships, becomes the first Venezuelan to win a Paralympic Judo medal.
Earlier, Soazo easily beat China's Zhou Qian inside one minute by ippon in her first match, before overcoming Elvira Kivi (Sweden) by waza-ari-awasete-ippon in a closely contested semifinal.
Silver medalist Arce beat Lucia Teixeira (Brazil) by ippon and Angelique Quessandier (France) by waza-ari-awasete-ippon in the preliminaries and then defeated Athens 2004 gold medalist Madina Kazakova (Russia) by ippon in her semifinal.
Athens 2004 gold medalist Kazakova could manage only bronze this time, beating the host nation's Zhou by ippon.
After starting slowly Quessandier improved through the rounds and overcame Kivi by ippon to take her second Paralympic bronze, adding to the one she won in Athens 2004.
(BOCOG September 8, 2008)