Mashu Baker and Haruka Tachimoto struck double gold medals for Japan by claiming the men's 90kg and women's 70kg judo competition at the Rio Olympic Games on Wednesday.

Tachimoto, 26, looked strong from the beginning in the women's 70kg. Two minutes into the final, she threw three-time world champion Yuri Alvear of Colombia for "yuko" (Effective / Moderate advantage) and held her down to score an "ippon" (a full point scored in judo) and hand Japan a gold medal.

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"My medal is not a surprise for me, because I had decided before that I was going to be the new Olympic champion," the Japanese judoka, who finished seventh place at the last 2016 London Games, said "I have worked a lot for this so I am not surprised now. It is hard to know exactly what has changed from London 2012 until now. But I tried to stay more concentrated and not to repeat the same mistakes that I had done before."

The United Kingdom's 29-year-old Sally Conway and 26-year-old Laura Vargas Koch of Germany took the bronze medals.

In the men's 90kg event, Baker and European champion Georgian Varlam Liparteuani looked evenly matched in the start of the final. However, the Japanese scored a yuko halfway through the match and was able to hold on to the lead, according to Xinhua.

"To be Olympic champion was my dream when I was young," the 21-year-old native of Tokyo said. "The best thing to win is the ippon win. Knowing the big difference between gold and silver medal, perhaps I fought defensively. I wanted to win by ippon, but it didn't work."

China's Cheng Xunzhao won a bronze medal to become the first ever Chinese male judoka to secure an Olympic medal. Gwak Donghan of South Korea won the other bronze medal in the same category.

TagsCheng xunzhao, Rio Olympics 2016, Hakura tachimoto, mashu baker, Cheng xunzhao