Half-Heavyweight (≤100 kilograms), Men

Prior to the Beijing Olympics, Mongolia was known as the nation that had won the most Olympic medals (15) without having won a gold medal. That was not expected to change in this class. But Tüvshinbayar Naidangiin ended Mongolia’s gold medal drought by using waza-ari to win the final over Kazakhstan’s Askhat Zhitkeyev. Naidangiin was almost unknown, his international record consisting only of fifth-place finishes in heavyweight and open class at the 2006 Asian Games. Naidangiin had surprised from the start, upsetting Japan’s Keiji Suzuki in the first round. Suzuki was the defending Olympic Champion and had been World Champion in 2005. The 2007 World Champion was Brazil’s Luciano Corrêa but he also lost his first-round match. Henk Grol of the Netherlands, the 2008 European Champion, claimed one of the bronze medals, the other going to Azerbaijan’s Mövlud Mirəliyev. With Mongolia having won a gold medal, the distinction of winning the most Olympic medals with no golds reverted to the Philippines with nine medals.