Risako Kawai won the Olympic title in the 57kg category at the women’s wrestling in Tokyo 2020

Japanese wrestler Risako Kawai won her second consecutive Olympic title with a 5-0 victory against Belarusian Iryna Kurachkina in the finals in the 57kg category at the women’s wrestling tournament in Tokyo 2020. It is also the second gold medal for the Kawai sisters at the home Olympics after Yukako Kawai won the 62kg tournament on Wednesday.

Risako Kawai won two points in the first half and three in the second for the victory against Iryna Kurachkina, who beat Evelina Nikolova in the semifinals yesterday. The Bulgarian won one of the bronze medals today.

For Risako Kawai, this is the second consecutive Olympic title, after she won gold in Rio 2016 in the category up to 63 kg, as at 58 kg category then fought the legend Kaori Icho. She recently ended her career with four gold medals from the Olympics and the position in the new category up to 57 kg became vacant. Because she is more comfortable and stronger in this category, Risako Kawai chose to fight in it and made way for her sister Yukako Kawai in the new 62 kg category.

Besides Evelina Nikolova, the bronze medal was also won by the Olympic champion of 53 kg from Rio – Helen Maroulis (USA).