Oates misses out in quest for medal (From Worcester News)

Oates misses out in quest for medal

3:26pm Sunday 29th July 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Britain's Colin Oates missed out on the chance to fight for Olympic judo bronze when he was beaten by Jun-Ho Cho of Korea in the repechage of the men's under-66kgs at the ExCeL Arena.

The roof almost came off North Arena 2 as Oates was introduced to the crowd, with hopes raised of a first British Olympic judo medal since 2000. Both fighters soon collected passivity penalties, with Oates picking up another midway through the contest to put him behind.

Cho, world bronze medalist in 2011, then scored another Yuko to leave the Team GB fighter with an uphill battle as his gallant Olympic bid ended.

Oates had made it through to the quarter-final stage where he was beaten by Georgian Lashas Shavdatuashvili.

Norfolk judoka Oates overcame Australian Ivo Dos Santos in his opening bout.

The 29-year-old then produced a big upset to knock out world number three Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar, the Mongolian bronze medallist from Athens 2004, as the partisan home crowd at North Arena 2 in ExCeL went crazy.

However, Oates - who finished a career-best fifth at the 2011 World Championships - could not then get past upcoming Georgian Shavdatuashvili, as the 20-year-old edged a tense quarter-final with a holdown in golden score.

Oates was pleased with his displays, but admitted a sense of frustration he was not able to seize his opportunity and deliver a medal for Team GB.

He said: "I am disappointed because I got to the stage where I had given myself a chance to fight for a medal. Today was one of the best I have ever fought, especially against the Mongolian, who has been so consistent.

"It was a really good win to get past him, but I felt the Georgian was my opportunity, because the Korean was always going to be very tough. I went for a big score, but it did not work out."