FUKUOKA - Isamu Sonoda, a judo gold medalist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics who later coached popular female judoka Ryoko Tani to Olympic gold, died of pneumonia Thursday. He was 79.
Fukuoka Prefecture native Sonoda claimed the world championships in the middleweight (80-kilogram) division in 1969 as a university student before winning Olympic gold in the category in 1976 in Canada, where he thrived on his inner-thigh throw.
Having beaten a three-time world champion in the domestic Japanese qualifier to make the games, Sonoda beat Valeri Dvoinikov of the Soviet Union in the final.
He went on to coach Tani from her elementary school days and guided the diminutive, iconic judoka to her first Olympic gold in the women's 48-kilogram class at the 2000 Sydney Games before she claimed another gold four years later in Athens.
Sonoda also helped Kie Kusakabe take bronze in the women's 57-kg in Sydney.
