Junior Judo World Championship: Teams put on a show on day 5 as Japan protected its title

This is day five and the final team tournament in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital city that hosts the Judo Junior World Mixed Team Championship.

The Teams is an event like no other. It takes the individual sport of Judo, and brings 6 players together, 3 male and 3 female, to form one united team.

In the first Bronze medal contest, The Republic of Korea faced Team Mongolia. The Korean team was in great form and quickly raced to a 4-0 victory, and earned a spot on the podium.

The passionate Tajik crowd were very excited for the next contest, as their close neighbour Uzbekistan took on Azerbaijan for the other bronze.

A memorable matchup went back and forth but after a fightback from Azerbaijan, it was Uzbekistan who eventually sealed the victory and the other bronze medal when Mardon Ravshanov defeated Vusal Galandarzade in the deciding contest.

The final match was between eternal rivals France and Japan. As the individual World Champion Melkia Auchecorne got France off to the perfect start scoring Ippon against Rin Maeda, the result was 1-0 for France.

But Komei Kawabata levelled things at 1-1 against Ivan Chernyshenko. After that, things turned back in favour of France again thanks to Celia Cancan when she won with two Waza-Ari scores against Chihiro Yamaguchi. 2-1 for France.

However, after Nozomu Miki edged a tight contest with Maxence Bordin and Riko Honda scored Waza-ari against Alya de Carvalho; it fell to Keito Kihara to take the fourth and decisive victory against Peter Jean. The scoreboard was 4-2 for Japan.

In the end, the Japanese defended their junior world mixed team title from 2023. The next generation of Judo looks safe in the hands of this outstanding team.

The Gold medals were handed out by the IJF Head Referee Director Armen Bagdasarov and the Tajik Judo President Ismoil Mahmadzoir gave the champions their trophy.

There were joyous scenes as the medalists received their awards.

“I wanted to win so much that I could die. Thank you Dushanbe" said Keito Kihara who earned the decisive victory for Japan.