Japan win world judo team title

Japan won the women’s judo team world championships in Salvador, Brazil on Sunday following a hard fought victory over China in the final.

Yuki Hashimoto drew first blood when she beat Yingnan May in the women’s -52kg weight category. A strong immobilisation move called yoko-shio-gatame earned the Japanese Judoka victory by ippon just after the two-minute mark.

Next up was Japan’s Anzu Yamamoto and China’s Tongjuan Lu battling for the under 57 kilo class. After two minutes and forty seconds Yamamoto extended her country’s lead to two points when she followed her team-mate’s lead earlier on and immobilised her opponent to win by ippon.

China gave themselves some hope of a comeback when Lili Xu beat Kana Abe in the -63 kilo category and then pulled level at two all courtesy of Fei Chen’s golden score victory over Yuko Imai in the under 70 kilo division.

Japan however wrapped up the title in the deciding fight after Megumi Tachimoto beat Qian Qin with a waza-ari throw in the over 70 kilo division.

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