Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Taiwan judo star Yang Yung-wei (楊勇緯) claimed a bronze medal in the men's under-60kg category at the 2022 International Judo Federation (IJF) World Judo Masters in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Yang, 25, beat 19-year-old Giorgi Sardalashvili of Georgia in the third-place match and finished with a bronze medal after having suffered a defeat in the semifinals against Japanese Ryuju Nagayama.
In October, Yang was overpowered by Sardalashvili when they met in the final at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi.
Yang, an Olympic silver medalist, has won one gold, two silver, and three bronze medals in seven international tournaments he has competed in this year.
The only tournament at which he did not clinch a medal was the Tokyo Grand Slam 2022 earlier this month when he lost to Japanese opponent Hayato Kondo in the round of 16.
After concluding the competition in Jerusalem, Yang will return to Taiwan to prepare for the 19th Asian Games slated to be held in Hangzhou, China, from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8, 2023 and the 31st Summer World University Games (Summer Universiade/FISU Games) to be held in Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan Province, from July 28 to Aug. 8 in 2023, which had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yang, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, said in a statement issued Wednesday that he hoped to better his 2018 performance in next year's Asian Games.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese judoka Lien Chen-ling (連珍羚) fell short of a medal in Jerusalem after she lost to Sarah-Leonie Cysique of France in the women's under-57 kg semifinals and was defeated by Japan's Tsukasa Yoshida in the third-place match.
