Spirited Kearney bows out but vows to rock in Rio

Lisa Kearney, the first woman to represent Ireland in judo at an Olympic Games, insisted she will be targeting a medal come Rio in four years time after going close to causing a major upset at the ExCel on Saturday.

She pushed China’s Wu Shugen to the golden score — the equivalent of extra-time — before losing a thrilling last 16 contest.

Shugen, a veteran of the Beijing Games, appeared to have victory wrapped up with 13 seconds of the five minutes remaining when she finally nailed what appeared to be the winning score.

Kearney never gave up, however, and when she threw Shugen on her side, the referees took a look at the video replay and awarded the equalising score.

Shugen was now under pressure and eventually won a war of attrition after producing an Ippon throw which automatically ended the contest.

“I was starting to build momentum,” the Belfast woman said. “She already had one warning on the board I thought that maybe I was going to get her penalised again. I felt that would have won me the contest — and that tactic was working quite well but unfortunately I just got caught.

“I’ll definitely be building on this experience for the next Olympic Games. I’ll definitely be aiming higher than that.

“To just walk out at an Olympic Games is not enough for me — that’s not what I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving it, but I wanted to be fighting later in the day today and I’ll definitely be aiming for that in future Olympics.

“I just love judo and the Olympic games is an amazing experience but it will be so much better when I’m out there winning fights.

“I think I could be a medal prospect for the future. I think I have the ability. Not everybody who has ability necessarily gets a medal — everyone here is phenomenally talented. I believe I’m as talented as the other athletes here and I’m as well if not better prepared than other athletes here. We’re all on a pretty even level. I’m doing this believing I’m a medal prospect.”