The French mixed team left with the silver medal by losing against Japan (3-4), after a hotly contested final of the mixed team event at the World Judo Championships, this Sunday 14 May in Doha. The French won the first two points thanks to Joan-Benjamin Gaba, expeditious against the very experienced Soichi Hashimoto by inflicting an ippon on him early in the fight, and Margaux Pinot, who surprised Saki Niizoe by countering his attack during the golden score. Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou, very active against Goki Tajima, was then surprised in extra time when the two judokas each had two penalties. Coralie Hayme pushed Maya Segawa to a third penalty in the golden score to widen the gap again for France, before Tatsuru Saito quickly cracked Joseph Terhec on penalties. Sarah-Léonie Cysique fell short of knocking down Haruka Funakubo, before making a mistake and suffering an ippon. The two countries being neck and neck (3-3), Margaux Pinot was drawn for the decisive match and presented herself once again against Saki Niizoe. The Frenchwoman thought she had overthrown her opponent after 5 minutes of golden score, before her attack was judged and then penalized by the referee. She then lost the fight by suffering a 3rd penalty against the Japanese. Japan wins its 6th world crown and remains undefeated in this event since arriving at the World Championships in 2017.