The Mixed Team Preliminaries - Wow!

Everything changed in 2025 when France lost their quarter-final to Korea, meaning Japan would have to face someone new in the final. However, Japan lost their semi-final to Georgia, meaning neither of the incumbent finalists would fight for gold in Budapest.

This did mean it was possible for Japan and France to meet in a bronze medal match instead of their usual rendezvous in the final, but France took a real detour away from their playbook and lost to Brazil in the repechage. France 7th, Japan fighting for bronze, what a day!

As an aside, let’s take a moment to applaud this ‘throw of the day’ contender from Rafaela Silva (BRA), a massive utsuri-goshi in the France-Brazil match which catapulted Marie-Eve Gahie and her team out of the competition.

The other semi-final was fought between Germany and Korea. Germany had whitewashed Azerbaijan in the round of 16 and then came through a tie-breaker with Brazil in the quarter-final. Their deciding golden score contest was fought between -70 kg world and Olympic medallist Miriam Butkereit (GER) and Brazil’s Olympic and double world champion at -57 kg, Rafaela Silva who made the move up to -63 kg at the end of 2024, still a relative newcomer to the category.

Korea were magnificent in every round and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the whole experience. They reached their first ever world mixed team final with excellent judo, impeccable manners and their joy was clear on every face in the team.

Final

Georgia vs France

Bronze medal matches

Italy vs Germany

Brazil vs Japan

The final block begins at 6pm local time and can be viewed live on JudoTV. Tune in! There will be fireworks!