Antonio Tenorio Silva of Brazil became the first judoka to win four consecutive Paralympic gold medals after beating Karim Sardarov (Azerbaijan) by ippon in the final of the Men's -100kg event at the Workers' Gymnasium on Tuesday, September 9.

His previous three golds were won at the Athens 2004 Games in the -100kg class, Sydney 2000 in the -90kg class and Atlanta 1996 in the -86kg division.

Silva drove through to the final by beating Hamzeh Nadri (Iran) and the Myles Porter of the United States, both by ippon in the preliminaries and overcame Mykola Lyivytskyi (Ukraine) also by ippon in the semifinal.

The silver in this division went to Sardarov, who overpowered Juan Carlos Cortada (Cuba) by ippon in less than a minute in the semifinal. Earlier he beat Hirose Haruka of Japan by ippon in just 27 seconds.

Cortada became the bronze medalist by throwing Porter for ippon inside a minute. This was the third Judo medal for Cuba, following Victor Sanchez's bronze in the -66kg and Isao Cruz's gold medal in the -81kg division.

In the other match, Lyivytskyi overcame Hirose on points to win a second bronze for Ukraine. Sergei Sydorenko (Ukraine) won the gold in the -73kg division on Monday.

(BOCOG September 9, 2008)