Japan beats France to gold while Putin visits World Judo Championships

The 2018 World Judo Championships came to a close in Baku with Japan winning their eighth gold in the mixed team event, as watching guests included Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Japanese team defended their title with a 4-1 win over France in the gold medal match.

In the final, Hisayoshi Harasawa began Japan's path to victory as he beat France's Cyrille Maret after two minutes of golden score in an over-90kg match.

World champion Tsukasa Yoshida then made it 2-0 to Japan overall by scoring a waza-ari on France's Priscilla Gneto.

Yoshida then held down the French judoka with a ushiro-kesa-gatame for ten seconds to take the win in the under-57kg category.

The third match was the men's under-73kg bout in which Arata Tatsukawa forced three shidos from France's Guillaume Chaine for the win.

With the overall score at 3-0, Japan only needed to win one more match to retain their title.

World silver medallist, Marie Eve Gahie of France, prevented another win for Japan by beating the world bronze medallist Yoko Ono at under-70kg.

Gahie made the scores 3-1 by countering Ono for ippon in the match.

In the final match that was contested, Shoichiro Mukai took the win for Japan over France's Axel Clerget at under-90kg.

Mukai beat the French judoka by ippon to seal the contest for Japan, 4-1.

Russia and the Unified Korea team took the bronze medals.