The action at the Stožice Centre saw 16 teams of five judoka participate in the men's event and 15 teams of five compete for the women's title.

As the competition gathered pace judo fans saw Georgia emerge victorious in the men's event, while Japan came to the fore in the women's, in a repeat of the result seen at the 2013 senior World Championships in Rio.

Georgia had to come from behind to claim their gold medal as Gela Kelikhashvili lacked his usual composure and accumulated four shido penalties to gift victory to Greece's Georgios Azoidis by hansoku-make.

It was Georgia's Phridon Gigani who pulled things level, as he defeated individual bronze medallist Roman Moustopoulos by a wazi-ari and yuko.

Greek coach Nikos Iliadis was banished from the mat side during the contest after coaching his athlete during the match, instead of during the breaks.

Georgia then took the lead for the first time in the final, with Ushangi Margiani seeing off individual gold medallist Alexios Ntanatsidis with a wazi-ari from a uki-goshi.

Georgia had to fight from behind to win the men's competition after Gela Kelikhashvili lost the opening bout to Georgios Azoidis

Obviously caught up in the moment, Georgia's team coach was soon after sent away from the floor for being overzealous.

The Georgian must not have been too concerned, however, as he saw his team claim the gold medal, as individual champion Beka Gviniashvili and bronze medallist Levani Matiashvili impressively won their contests by ippon to confirm a 4-1 rout.

Japan left the home fans disappointed as they defeated Slovenia 4-1 in the first of the bronze medal contests.

Before leaving the tatami the Slovenian team bowed towards all four sides of the arena to show their appreciation for the fanatical support they received throughout the competition.

The second bronze medal was won by Ukraine as they steam rolled the Netherlands 4-1 in an ippon filled contest.

Georgia claimed the gold medal in the men's team event beating Greece in the final, Japan and Ukraine took the two bronze medals

The women's final proved a much closer encounter as Japan edged France to take home the gold medal.

France started the better of the two teams with individual bronze medallist Amandine Buchard firing them in front with a wazi-ari from an uchi-mata in the last 30 seconds of the match.

Japan responded immediately as Christa Deguchi secured a win by ippon off of a harai-goshi with just a minute remaining, against France's Amelie Guihur.

Silver medallist Tsugane Megumi then gave Japan the lead, throwing Lindsay Tsang Sam Moi with an ippon seoi-nage for ippon.

Proceedings were drawn level again in the next match, as fellow silver medallist Chizuru Arai suffered a defeat to bronze medallist Margaux Pinot after taking two shido penalities to the French judoka's one.

Inevitably, it was Japan's Nami Inamori who claimed the gold for her country as she won the winner takes all contest against Madeleine Malonga.

Inamori has been invincible in this competition, winning all of her individual contests by ippon.

She continued the streak in the team event as she countered Malonga's ouchi-gari with a thunderous ura-nage for ippon and the win.

Nami Inamori continued her form to win the final contest against Madeleine Malonga and claim the gold for Japan


It was Croatia who took the first bronze medal, shocking Russia in a 4-1 victory.

Germany defeated Brazil by the same result in the final bronze medal contest, bringing an end to the 2013 Junior World Championships.

To watch the latest action on Judo TV click here.

Photos©IJF Media Team by G. Sabau

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