Mark Jacobs 
The World Judo Championships concluded Thursday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with Japan utterly dominating the field for the tournament. The Japanese took home 6 gold medals and 13 medals overall. Next best was Brazil with 2 golds and four total medals. Host country Uzbekistan also claimed two golds while France captured the second most medals with 5 but only one gold. Japan finished in style taking the mixed team title on the final day defeating the country that beat them for gold in last year’s Olympics, France, to claim the crown.
Naohisa Takato lead the way in individual competition for Japan capturing his fourth world championship at 60 kg as Hifumi Abe, Natsumi Tsunoda, Uta Abe and Megumi Horikawa also took home individual gold. Other highlights of the tournament included Croatia becoming only the third country in history besides Japan to win gold and silver in the same division as Barbara Matic beat countrywoman Lara Cvjetko to claim the women’s 70 kg class. And in what was widely regarded as the match of the tournament, Tato Grigalashvili of Georgia defeated Belgium’s Matthias Casse with a big hip throw four minutes into overtime to capture the men’s 81 kg division.
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