Japan settles for silver in judo mixed team event as France takes surprise gold

Individually, Japan’s judoka couldn’t be stopped across seven days of Olympic competition at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan.

But as a group they finally met their match against France in the mixed team event on Saturday, falling in the gold medal bout by a score of 4-1.

Instead of winning a 10th judo gold medal at the Tokyo Games, Japan was forced to settle for silver, giving the nation’s judoka a final tally of a record nine gold, two silver and one bronze.