Ryuju Nagayama’s run at the Paris Olympics ended in controversial fashion on Saturday.
Nagayama lost to Spain’s Francisco Garrigos in the quarterfinal round of the men’s under-60 kg competition, and he expressed his frustration and disbelief at the result by refusing to leave the mat at Champ de Mars Arena.
Garrigos defeated the 28-year-old Nagayama via ippon after a chokehold.
The ruling came despite it appearing that Garrigos maintained the choke after the referee called matte (wait), a point when a judoka is supposed to release a hold.
Nagayama did not agree with the call to award Garrigos the ippon. The gave a disbelieving shrug when the decision was announced, and refused to shake hands with the Spaniard or leave the mat. He appeared to make the hand gestures used to call for a replay review at one point.
Nagayama eventually bowed to the mat and stepped down. He remained in the arena for another minute before finally leaving.
The loss knocked the two-time world championship bronze medalist out of contention for gold in Paris. He will compete in the repechage bout against Yung-wei Yang of Taiwan later Saturday afternoon.
Garrigos advanced to the semifinals.