Montreal 1976, -80kg: Isamu Sonoda (JPN)
Japan’s top favorite at -80kg was not in Montreal. Shozo Fujii, the talented morote-seoi-nage specialist was already a triple World Champion by 1976 but he had lost out to another champion, Isamu Sonoda in that year’s All-Japan Weight Class Championships. It was a narrow, decision-based defeat. But a loss is a loss and Sonoda was chosen to represent Japan.
The world of judo has seen siblings become champions together but the Sonoda brothers were among the first siblings to have achieved competition success at the highest level. Isamu’s older brother, Yoshio, was the one who got him into judo.
As a young boy growing up in Fukuoka, Isamu, was very much into baseball and dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. But his brother dragged him to the judo club and there, Isamu found that he had a natural talent and affinity for judo.
The brothers both enrolled in an affiliated vocational school after graduating from junior high school in order to be able to focus on judo training for a year before they entered high school. It was during that time that their judo really blossomed and the “Sonoda brothers” became well-known in judo circles throughout Fukuoka.
“A mass of fighting spirit” was how many of his teammates described him. During his university day, Sonoda once broke his four front teeth during a competition and was covered in blood. But after he cleaned up, he continued the match.
In 1969, the Sonoda brothers took part in the Mexico City World Championships, were Yoshio won the -63kg division and Isamu won the -80kg division. By 1976, however, Isamu was already 29 years old and past his prime. In fact, he had lost to Fujii, four years his junior, in the 1973 World Championships final. But there he was, selected to represent Japan in the Montreal Olympics.
Many judo commentators, and even those around Sonoda, felt that Fujii would have been the logical choice for the Olympics. But Sonoda himself had no doubts. “I will definitely win,” he said to himself.
He easily defeated his preliminary round opponents with a potent mix of ouchi-gari and uchimata, two throws that go well together. First, he threw Paul Buganey of Australia with ouchi-gari. Then against Jong In-chol of North Korea he used uchimata. Against Park Young-chul of South Korea, he went back to ouchi-gari. And for his semifinal match, against Germany’s Fred Marhenke, he used uchimata.
The final was against the Soviet Union’s Valery Dvoinikov, who liked doing leg grabs, kata-guruma and other unorthodox techniques. But he was no match for Sonoda, who threatened him with uchimata time and again but ultimately ended up throwing him twice with ouchi-gari. And with that, Sonoda won the gold medal and justified his selection for the Olympics.