Japan world team champion in all age groups

Japan have won the Mixed Team Competition at the Junior World Championships in Nassau on the Bahamas on Sunday. The victory of the youngsters were not a surprise. Japan captured 18 medals in total at the individual tournament including seven world titles. In the final of the mixed teams Japan faced the talents of Brazil as opponent.

U90kg: Lucas Lima (BRA) was not required to compete as Japan did not field a heavyweight judoka and Brazil were automatically awarded the opening contest. Saito Tatsuru (JPN) was left out as he had a back injury and his country did not want to risk him in the final. Japan 0 – 1 Brazil

U48kg: Junior World Championships silver medallist Yoshida Sana (JPN) defeated Laura Ferreira (BRA) to level the scores. Yoshida opened the scoring with a low uchi-mata for a waza-ari and submitted her Brazilian opponent with a juji-gatame. Japan 1 – 1 Brazil

U60kg: Junior World Championships winner Koga Genki (JPN) showed his quality with a win over Renan Torres (BRA). The Japanese prodigy tapped out Torres with shime-waza to put Japan ahead for the first time in the final. Japan 2 – 1 Brazil

U57kg: Three-time Junior World Championships winner Funakubo Haruka (JPN) beat Ketelyn Nascimento (BRA) in golden score. Nascimento was penalised with a third shido for passivity in added time to extend Japan’s lead. Japan 3 – 1 Brazil

U73kg: Tsukamoto Ryo (JPN) put his country one win away from gold as he defeated Jeferson Santos Junior (BRA) by ippon with a juji-gatame. Japan 4 – 1 Brazil

U70kg: Shimmori Ryu (JPN) was the hero as she submitted Ellen Santana (BRA) with shime-waza in 67 seconds to earn Japan’s fifth win to settle the one-sided final. Japan 5 – 1 Brazil

In the first semi-final Japan downed Georgia 5-1. Tomizawa Kana (JPN) defeated a gutsy Eteri Liparteliani (GEO) with a kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame hold which the Georgian submitted from after only eight seconds.

In the second semi-final Brazil overwhelmed Kazakhstan 5-1 with Jeferson Santos Junior (BRA) picking up the fifth victory against Zhanbolat Bagtbergenov (KAZ). The -73kg contest was won by Santos Junior as Bagtbergenov received his third shido and was disqualified in golden score.

The first set of bronze medals were won by Kazakhstan who saw off France 5-3 in a riveting match up. With the score at 4-2 in favour of Kazakhstan, Alexis Mathieu (FRA) won a must-win clash against Yerassyl Bolat (KAZ) at -90kg. The Frenchman kept his country in the match with a modified kata-guruma that earned a waza-ari score. The women’s heavyweight category was last up as Laura Fuseau (FRA) was up against Kamila Berlikash (KAZ). Kazakhstan needed one more contest win while France had to win this one to remain in contention and to tie up the score. The tension was palpable as golden score was ordered and French judoka Fuseau made the fatal mistake of stepping out of the contest area which resulted in her third shido.

The second set of bronze medals were claimed by Russia who defeated Georgia 5-3 in a classic. This match up always delivers and the mixed team format added to the intrigue in the Bahamas. Eteri Liparteliani (GEO) showed her quality as she defeated Danna Nagucheva (RUS) with an uchi-mata for ippon to reduce her country‘s deficit to one contest (3-2). Khamzat Akhmarov (RUS) made it 4-2 by ippon from an uchi-mata against Aleko Mamiashvili (GEO) to put Russia on the brink of bronze. Junior World Championships winner Lasha Bekauri beat Eldar Allakhverdiev (RUS) to keep Georgia in the match before Veronika Artamonova (RUS) pinned down Sophio Somkhishvili (GEO) to seal bronze for the Russian delegation.

Final

Brazil (BRA) vs Japan (JPN)                         

Bronze Medal Fights

Kazakhstan (KAZ) vs France (FRA)   

Russia (RUS) vs Georgia (GEO)