Japan grabs another world title for mixed teams

The gold medal for Junior teams at the world championships in Dushanbe was again for Japan. France and Japan stepped forward to fight it out in the final, the new double junior world champion at -63 kg, Auchecorne, fighting up at -70 for the team. Rin Maeda did not last long, the Frenchwomen throwing with an o-soto-gari to claim the first point.

Chernyshenko (FRA) was then up against his own double world champion and Kawabata was primed to confirm his dominance. He secured a hold in no time at all and left the tatami having equalised for his team.

Celia Cancan, a world silver medallist from day 4, faced Yamaguchi in the +70 kg contest and scored very fast with tsuri-goshi. It took her a further three minutes to double the score for the win, but she persevered and got the job done. 2-1 to France.

Maxence Bordin was determined to extend France’s lead and he came out with a clear gameplay to disturb Nozomu Miki’s rhythm. He used unorthodox gripping and a barrage of fast-paced attacks to ensure Miki could not prepare his own attacks as he would like to. Miki resorted to grappling techniques to keep up and at least neutralise the advantage. It worked and he began to find solutions, improving his attack rate and forcing the Frenchman to accept 3 penalties. 2-2.

At -57 kg De Carvalho (FRA) faced new junior world champion Honda (JPN). The French judoka hadn’t shown her best in the individual event but against the best in the world she was different! It took Honda 4:17 to overcome the power presented to her, but overcome it she did.

Peter Jean was France’s only hope of saving the match; he would need to beat -73 kg junior world champion Keito Kihara to equalise. It wasn’t to be though, despite a valiant effort. It took Kihara 9 and a half minutes to take a lead, pushing the pace until Peter Jean had to accept a third penalty.

The first medal match of the final block of day 5 in Dushanbe saw Korea face Asian rivals Mongolia for the chance to stand on the world championship podium.

The first point went to Jimin Yang (KOR) at -70 kg, a tactical win but an important point which dictated the theme of this match. Korea sprinted to the podium from that moment, winning 4 nil, new junior world champion Hyeonji Lee being among the victors, continuing her unbeaten run in Dushanbe.

Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan promised a much closer match for the second bronze. Shirinjon Yuldoshova (UZB) was the top seed at -78 kg in the individual competition but exited early, disappointed and frustrated. She made no mistake in her -70 kg match opener against Azerbaijan though, throwing and holding to take the first point.

The second point came from Samanov (UZB) at -90 kg, throwing Aslan Kotsoev (AZE) with a beautiful ko-uchi-gari with only 9 seconds to go. Kotsoev did the only thing he could and ran into the fight in an attempt to overpower his opponent but in doing so he was thrown again. It was 2-0 to Uzbekistan, that was until Nigmatova extended the led further by throwing Suleymanova for ippon in the first minute of their contest.

Kanan Nisibov (AZE) then pulled a point back, still giving Alizada a lot of work today but at least hope was restored. She took her opportunity and threw her Uzbek opponent for ippon with o-uchi-gari immediately after ‘hajime’ and passed the baton to Galandarzade, current junior European champion at -73 kg. Galandarzade was junior world champion last year but Mardon Ravshanov was a bronze medallist this year where the Azerbaijani went out before the final block. Ravshanov threw for a waza-ari in a huge 50/50 situation, both grappling for position, but he also followed up with a fast okuri-eri-jime to finish and ensure Uzbekistan would reach the podium; a tough ask against a strong team from Azerbaijan.