JUDO: Australia's Mark Anthony came within a whisker of claiming the country's best result in men's Judo since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Anthony's seventh place in the men's -90kg division equalled teammate Daniel Kelly's effort at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The 22-year-old stunned Georgian Varlam Liparteliani with a spectacular upset win in the preliminary round before suffering a narrow 1-0 loss to Cuban Asley Gonzalez.

Anthony then entered the repechage round against Greece's gold medal favourite Illias Iliadis, who was another shock preliminary round loser. 

That match ended in a loss by ippon to one of the best fighters in the world. A win would have seen the young Australian fight for a bronze medal, which hasn't been achieved since Maria Pekli toppled Japan's Kie Kusakabe at the Sydney Games.

But it was the Melbournian's powerful win over medal favourite Liparteliani that had the Excel judo arena buzzing, and his fellow -90kg combatants stunned.

The Georgians had previously owned the division with gold medals in past Olympics going to Zurab Zviadauri (2004) and Irakli Tsirekidze (2008), along with various World Championship wins.

Liparteliani kicked off the scoring with a 'uki goshi' hip throw with 3min 25sec left in the bout, putting Anthony 1-0 behind.

But Anthony's perfectly executed 'ura nage' counter - a powerful throw where the opponent is picked up, lifted backwards, and slammed into the mat - proved the match-winning score , effectively ending a Georgian dynasty in the process.

The ensuing quarter final was a dourer affair, with the Australian struggling to achieve the same success with his strong right hand grip against the Cuban.

In the end, it was only a penalty awarded against Anthony for passitivity that separated the two, ending Anthony's hopes for a semi final berth.

Of his three memorable fights of his 2012 Olympic campaign, Anthony said:

"I was wanting to fight [Liparteliani] for a while," 

"I was really happy when I beat him, he's one of the strongest guys in the world in my weight division.

"When I was fighting Gonzalez, he outsmarted me.

"Next time I'll have a plan A and a plan B – that’ something I can take out of the experience."

"When I was fighting Illiadis I still thought I was a chance to win.

"He's unbelievably strong, I just couldn't break his grips."

Doug Macdougall in London

Olympics.com.au