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Fractured fairy tale Broken elbow leads to gold for HuizingaLatest: Friday September 29, 2000 11:21 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Olympic dreams ended painfully for Japan's Hidehiko Yoshida. The world champion went down in a heap and was taken to a hospital after apparently breaking his right elbow. Yoshida, of Japan, was defeated by Brazil's Carlos Honorato in a preliminary match of the men's 90-kilogram event Wednesday night, opening the door for Mark Huizinga to become a gold medalist. Honorato advanced all the way to the title match where he was defeated by Huizinga of the Netherlands. Frederic Demontfaucon of France and Ruslan Mashurenko of the Ukraine shared the bronze medal. Huizinga won by ippon 3:22 into the final match. "I just felt very cool," Huizinga said. "I waited for the moment and dived in. I didn't expect that the Brazilian would qualify for the Olympics." Yoshida, the 1999 world champion and a former Olympic gold medalist, was injured just 43 seconds into the third-round bout. He fell awkwardly, landing on his right arm, and had to be assisted from the mat. Japan team official Tsuneharu Kida said Yoshida was taken to a hospital, but was later released. "He appeared to break the elbow badly and may require surgery," Kida said. Kida said no further details were available. Yoshida, who won in a lighter division at the 1992 Barcelona Games, was considered one of Japan's main contenders for gold at Sydney. Huizinga almost didn't get very far, facing a tough second-round match against Cuba's Yosvane Oreidys Despaigne. "My first match was the most difficult, because he was the strongest opponent," Huizinga said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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