Having earned three gold medals in the girl’s individual events in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, Japan were considered one of the favourites to take victory in the team competition and they progressed to the gold medal contest courtesy of a 4-1 victory over France.

Croatia were billed as the underdogs in their tie with Russia but caused an upset as they claimed three victories in the five-bout contests.

A second shock though looked unlikely after the opening two bouts of the final as Japan’s Mai Umekita scored with an ippon to defeat Matea Brletic in the under 48 kilogram event, before Kana Tomizawa claimed victory in a repeat of the girl’s under 52kg individual final against Tihea Topolovec to double Japan’s lead.

Japan’s victory was confirmed by Ryoko Takeda as she scored with a waza-ari and a yuko to defeat Iva Oberen in the under 57kg division.

Her compatriot Chie Sasaki added further gloss to the overall score as the individual silver medallist in the under 63kg category overcame Lara Kliba with an ippon.

A victory for newly crowned under 70 kg champion Karla Prodan over Suzuka Takaku gave Croatia some consolation as the 16-year-old triumphed with a waza-ari to get her team on the board.

Russia were able to bounce back from their surprise semi-final defeat to beat Brazil 4-1 in the first bronze medal match, while the French team were also able to secure a place on the podium after they saw off Serbia by the same score.

Having seen the girl’s team earn gold by taking victories in their first three bouts, Japan’s boy’s team looked to replicate the feat against a Russian team determined to end the Championships on a high.

Japan’s only boy’s gold medallist in Sarajevo, Genki Koga, got his team of to an ideal start as the son of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic champion Toshihiko scored with a yuko early in his under 60 kilogram bout with Akhmed Bogatyrev.

Hideyuki Ishigooka put Japan one win away from claiming their second gold of the day after he defeated Murad Chopanov, before his team-mate Kamui Watanabe defeated Aram Grigorian on shido penalties to give the Japan’s boy’s team an unassailable 3-0 advantage.

Russia’s Murad Kurbanismailov and Inal Tasoev restored some pride for their nation by earning victories over Ken Sasatani and Naoki Tobe in the final two contests of the World Championships to reduce Japan’s overall margin of victory to 3-2.

A stunning performance from Georgia’s judokas saw them defeat Kazakhstan 5-0 to claim the first bronze medal, while the second tie was a far closer affair as Uzbekistan edged France 3-2 to earn the last spot on the podium.

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