At the team World Championships the team of Japan claimed the world title, which is not a surprise. Still given the Olympic Games outcome where France captured the gold, it should have been more tight, but the outcome was the same as the Tokyo World Championships in 2019.
Frenchman Mathieu Alexis seemed superior and stronger against Tajima Goki but The Japanese scored the opener of the match by ippon. Romane Dicko vs. Wakaba Tomita was a classic and it was Dicko’s who scored waza-ari followed by oseikomi. The heavyweights brought up Joseph Terhec vs. Hyoga Ota where Ota scored waza-ari in a sweep and won in the end by oseikomi and gave Japan the lead. France though came back when Sarah Leonie Cysique defeated Haruka Funakubo. Joan-Benjamin Gaba defeated against Kenshi Haradain in ne-waza. France relied on Marie-Eve Gahié, who faced Saki Niizoe but got strangled by Niizoe and gave Japan the world title.
France had defeated Georgia and China and face Israel in the semi-final in a top match. The match included top matches such as Romane Dicko vs Raz Hershko and Sarah Leonie Cysique vs Timna Nelson Levy and the French had to give everything to leave Israel for a possible bronze.
The same could be said for Germany that gave a good impression throughout the day, but couldn’t stand the Japanese quality in the semi. Germany defeated Mongolia and Ukraine. Japan simply has a great backup team with superb names, enough to beat the German team.
Source: www.judoinside.com
