Guilia Quintavalle secured Italy's first judo medal of the Olympic Games Monday when she took gold in the final of the women's 57-kilogram category event Monday at the Beijing University of Science and Technology Gymnasium.
Quintavalle defeated Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands, who won bronze four years ago in Athens, by yuko in the final, dpa reported.
Maria Pekli of Australia and Brazil's Ketleyn Quadros battled it out for a bronze medal with Quadros prevailing by golden score by ippon after the regulation five minutes failed to produce a winner.
In the other bronze medal match, two-time European champion Barbara Harel of France lost to China's Xu Jan by ippon.
Quintavalle, whose previous best results were fifth-place finishes in the 2007 world and 2008 European championships, defeated defending Olympic champion Yvonne Boenisch of Germany by waza-ari in her opening match.
Boenisch then went on to lose to Harel by koka in the repechage round.
Sydney 2000 champion Isabel Fernandez went out to Gravenstijn in the quarter-finals while world champion and gold medal favourite, Kye Sun-Hui of North Korea, lost to two-time European champion Harel, by waza-ari in the second round.
This is the second Dutch medal in judo at the games following Ruben Houkes' bronze in the men's 60kg category on Saturday.