First Gold Medal in Beijing

Mongolia's Tuvshinbayar Naidan has defeated Ashkat Zhitkeyev to win the men's -100kilograms class judo gold, the AP reports. Naidan had defeated the Japanese 2004 gold medalist in the first round before going on to eliminate fighters from Germany, Korea and Azerbaijan. This was his first Olympic competition; he had taken 5th place at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

Until 2000, Naidan was a wrestler, and he used a Mongolian wrestling move to drop his final contender. Although Naidan was five inches shorter than his opponent from Kazakhstan, he dove low and barrelled into Zhitkeyev's legs. He was able to post three scoring blows by lifting Zhitkeyev off the ground and rolling him onto his back.

This was Mongolia's first gold medal in history. They had previously won six silver medals and twelve bronze. Mongolia is now 2 medals ahead of Canada in the Beijing Olympics. :)