Having gone into the heavyweight divisions without winning a judo gold medal at Rio 2016, , it proved to be a stunning day for French judo in Carioca Arena as Emilie Andeol triumphed in the women’s over 78kg event.

The focus of the day, though, had been on French flagbearer Riner.

He was aiming to achieve back-to-back titles and maintain his record of winning every contest he has participated in since 2010.

After a first round ippon of Algeria’s Mohammed Amine Tayeb, the 27-year-old ended home hopes by eliminating Brazil’s Rafael Silva with a waza-ari score, which booked his place in the semi-final.

Riner continued to be tested but came through again by a waza-ari against Israel’s Or Sasson, which set up a final against Japan’s Hisayoshi Harasawa.

It was a cautious affair between the two heavyweights, with two shido penalties for the Japanese judoka giving Riner the upper hand.

Although the Frenchman picked up a late shido, he was able to keep his opponent at arm’s reach to take his second Olympic crown.

"The two last matches, the semi-final and the final, were the hardest ones,” said Riner.

“Coming here I was sure that I will face Harasawa in the final and this is what happened, the logic of the draw was observed.

"Coming here, I knew it would be tough.

“These two fighters I had in the afternoon were strong and today proved that they are really strong opponents and I have to be aware of them in the future.

"My day overall, I feel a lot of pride and joy that you do not see right now, because it is a big day and it is tiring and testing.

“But the joy is inside and I think I will not sleep tonight."

The first bronze was claimed by Sasson, at the centre of an incident earlier in the day when Egypt’s Islam El Shehaby was loudly booed by the crowd after a refusing to shake his hand following their bout, having come under pressure Islamist and nationalist voices in Egypt to withdraw entirely from the fight.

Sasson put the controversy behind him to reach the podium, defeating Cuba’s Alex Garcia Medonza on shido penalties.

Brazil also ended the judo competition on a high when Rafael Silva won his bronze medal clash with Uzbekistan’s Abdullo Tangriev to delight the home crowd.

It would be France’s night though, with Andeol prevailing in the women’s heavyweight final against defending champion Idalys Ortiz of Cuba.

The tie was decided during a golden score period after the regulation time ended with both judokas having a shido penalty apiece.

Andeol made the breakthrough by taking the Cuban to ground and achieving a pin, which eventually saw the Frenchwoman awarded an ippon.

China’s Yu Song defeated South Korea’s Kim Min-Jeong with an ippon for the first bronze and Kanae Yamabe triumphed by a waza-ari over Turkey’s Kayra Sayit.

Yamabe's bronze added to the Japanese medal haul, leaving with a total of 12 medals - three gold, one silver and eight bronze.

It was not their highest amount of gold medals claimed at the Olympics but Japan surpassed their record medal hauls from Barcelona 1992 and Athens 2004 where they claimed 10 medals.