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Open Class, Men

Date23 October 1964 — 13:00-18:00
StatusOlympic
LocationNippon Budokan, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Participants9 from 9 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advanced judoka to single-elimination tournament. Repêchage pool advanced one further judoka to semi-finals.

There were only nine entries in the open class, with three pools of three. To obtain a fourth semi-finalist, the losers in the pools could advance via a repêchage pool. The heavy favorite was Anton Geesink, the Dutchman who was World Champion in 1961 and 1964. The Japanese had chosen Akio Kaminaga to carry their hopes. Kaminaga was near the end of his career, but had been runner-up at the World Championships in 1958. Geesink and Kaminaga were unfortunately drawn in the same pool, and Geesink defeated him by decision. As expected, Kaminaga came through the losers’ pool. In the semi-finals Geesink faced Theodore Boronovskis (AUS), who yielded to a 12-second win by sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi. Kaminaga won the other semi-final over the German, Klaus Glahn, in 4:10 via tai-otoshi. The final was the one everyone had wanted – Geesink against Kaminaga. As the match started, the Japanese coaches were so intense that they leaned against the edge of the mat, drawing a caution from the referee. The match was close for nine minutes, when Kaminaga went for tai-otoshi, only to have Geesink counter with uranage, and threw the Japanese to the mat, and applied a basic hold, kesa-gatame. A few seconds later, the referee signaled ippon, and Geesink had his gold medal. Geesink would later spend a brief time in Japan, where he became very popular, as a professional wrestler, and in 1965, he played Samson in an Italian biblical movie. He was eventually elected an IOC Member.

PosCompetitor(s)NOC
1Anton GeesinkNEDGold
2Akio KaminagaJPNSilver
=3Klaus GlahnGERBronze
=3Ted BoronovskisAUSBronze
5John RyanIRL
6Ben CampbellUSA
7Thomas OngPHI
=8Alan PetherbridgeGBR
=8Ali HachichaTUN

Round One (23 October 1964)

Pool A (23 October 1964)

Match #1 Anton GeesinkNED
Harai-tsuri-komi-ashi
Alan PetherbridgeGBR
Match #2 Anton GeesinkNED
Kinsa
Akio KaminagaJPN
Match #3 Akio KaminagaJPN
O-uchi-gari
Alan PetherbridgeGBR

Pool B (23 October 1964)

Match #1 Ted BoronovskisAUS
Harai-goshi
John RyanIRL
Match #2 Ted BoronovskisAUS
Hane-goshi
Ali HachichaTUN
Match #3 John RyanIRL
Awase-waza
Ali HachichaTUN

Pool C (23 October 1964)

Match #1 Ben CampbellUSA
Okuri-ashi-barai
Thomas OngPHI
Match #2 Klaus GlahnGER
Kesa-gatame
Thomas OngPHI
Match #3 Klaus GlahnGER
Kiken-gachi
Ben CampbellUSA

Repêchage (23 October 1964)

Match #1 Akio KaminagaJPN
Awase-waza
John RyanIRL
Match #2 John RyanIRL
Uchi-mata
Thomas OngPHI
Match #3 Akio KaminagaJPN
Tai-otoshi
Thomas OngPHI

Semi-finals (23 October 1964)

Match #1 Anton GeesinkNED
Sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi (0:12)
Ted BoronovskisAUS
Match #2 Akio KaminagaJPN
Tai-otoshi (4:10)
Klaus GlahnGER

Final Round (23 October 1964)

Match 1/2 Anton GeesinkNED
Kesa-gatame (9:22)
Akio KaminagaJPN