While in the men's 58kg arena, Spain's Gonzalez Joel, who had never reached the podium in international or national event, claimed his maiden title at the men's 58kg class by beating Lizardo John Paul of the Philippine 2-(-1).

The 17-year-old Spaniard attributed his success to the world class gymnasium and warm atmosphere. "The venue here is amazing and the audience are also very polite and friendly, which were a combined motivation for my victory," said the beaming young winner after the match.

Having survived a breathtaking 5-4 "sudden death" bout against Japan's Uchimura Kengo in the semifinals, the in-form Spaniard rallied to down the favorite Lizardo John Paul by scoring two crucial points in the third set.

The 22-year-old Filipino, silver medalist at the 2006 Asian championships, failed to challenge the solid defence of Joel after two penalties were whistled on him.

"It was an easy final tonight as my opponent didn't pose any threat. In fact, the preliminary in the morning was more difficult," said Joel.

In the third-place playoffs earlier, Japan's Uchimura Kengo and China's Pei Guangqi downed their opponents to share the bronze medal.

As the venue for the Olympic judo and taekwondo competition in August, the USTB gymnasium embodies both power and exquisite beauty with ruby red metal-light.

Besides the Olympic events, the gymnasium will also hold wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby in the Paralympics. It has a floor area of 24,662 square meters with 8,012 seats.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2008)