The Japanese men were pushed all the way by defending champions Georgia, but Yusei Ogawa overcame Guram Tushishvili in the winner-takes-all contest to secure the gold medal. 

The pair went toe-to-toe for four minutes and could not be separated as they both received three shido penalties for passivity and gripping infringements.

But 18-year-old Ogawa, the son of 1992 Olympic silver medallist and four-time world champion Naoya, produced the finest moment of his burgeoning career as he caught his Georgian opponent for a yuko score.

"Before coming out to the competition my dad's advice was to go forward and be positive, to attack," said Ogawa.

"I felt so much pressure in the final contest and I was still unhappy with my individual performance so this was more motivation for me.

"I really enjoyed my experience of the team competition and now I will prepare to compete at the Kodokan Cup in November."

Hifumi Abe and Yuji Yamamoto beat Gela Kelikhashvili and Koba Mchedlishvili respectively to put the Japanese team into a 2-0 lead before Ushangi Margiani and Beka Gviniashvili brought Georgia back onto level terms to set up the decider.

The first set of bronze medals were captured by South Korea, who defeated Ukraine 4-1, while Russia overcame Brazil 3-2 in the second match.

Ami Kondo set Japan's women on their way to victory by beating France's Amandine Buchard ©IJF



Buoyed by the success of the men's team, Japan's women put on a masterclass against France in the final to successfully retain their crown. 

Junior and senior world champion Ami Kondo set her team on their to victory after catching Amandine Buchard with an armbar and forcing her to tap out with 86 seconds remaining.

Christa Deguchi, junior world silver medallist, added a second win by osaekomi before Nami Nabekura guaranteed the gold medal by ippon.

Junior world champion Sarah Asahina won the heavyweight contest to seal the rout after Marie Eve Gahie had pulled one back for the French by ippon.

"This was my first time competing at the Junior World Championships and I loved it," said Asahina.

"I am so happy to win gold for Japan.

"I wasn't very pleased with my performance today but the team came together, was a unit and were strong.

"It was also special for us to watch our men's team win gold."

South Korea and Russia's women replicated the success of their male counterparts by beating Brazil, 3-2, and Mongolia, 4-1, respectively in the bronze medal encounters.

Marius Vizer, IJF President, is looking ahead to World Judo Day on Tuesday (October 28) ©IJF



Marius Vizer, IJF President, used the last day of the competition in Florida to look ahead to World Judo Day on Tuesday (October 28).

The theme this year is "honour" and all week long famed judoka have been supporting the initiative which was introduced in 2011.

"I would like to congratulate the entire world judo community and I would like to thank you, in the name of the International Judo Federation, for your entire activities during this year," said Vizer.

"Being convinced that the judo principles - courtesy, courage, sincerity, honour, modesty, respect, self-control, friendship - are incontestable values not only in our sport, but for the entire society, I consider that these values must be spread within our community as well as a message to society, because this is the way to transfer the values of our sport in order to continuously educate the new generations and to have a real impact on all sectors of civil society.

"I congratulate you and I wish you all the best."

Watch the latest action on Judo TV here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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