Judo: France take bronze at the European Mixed Team Championships

France finished third at the European Mixed Team Judo Championships, held on Saturday 7 November at the Aleksandar Nikolić Hall in Belgrade. Knocked out in the semi-final by defending champions Georgia, the French team beat Germany 3 wins to 2 in the bronze-medal match. The Russian Federation won the title with a 4-1 final victory over Georgia, and Türkiye took the other bronze at the expense of hosts Serbia.

Bronze settled in the last bout

The match against Germany went down to the sixth and final contest. Célia Cancan opened the scoring at +70 kg after Lilli Louise Wojta picked up three penalties. Erik Abramov levelled by throwing Yann Rigaud for ippon with a counter to uchi-mata. At -57 kg, Astride Gneto and Charlotte von Leupoldt were both disqualified, a double hansoku-make that gave neither side a point. Maxime Gobert put France back in front with an uchi-mata in golden score against Alexander Gabler, before Dena Pohl equalised in the fourth minute of extra time against Clémence Emé. At 2-2, Aleksa Mitrovic scored a yuko inside the first minute against Dominic Ressel and held on while the German collected two penalties.

France's route

Earlier in the day France had beaten Romania 4-2 in the last 16 and Serbia 4-3 in the quarter-final, in a hall firmly behind the home team. Tieman Diaby was disqualified on a third shido in golden score and Marica Perisic beat Martha Fawaz in extra time, before Gobert (waza-ari against Mateja Stosic) and Léa Fontaine (yuko with harai-makikomi against Milica Zabic) sent the team through.

In the semi-final France led 1-0 without fighting, as Georgia had no entrant at +70 kg. Luka Maisuradze levelled against Mitrovic and Georgia moved 3-1 ahead. Gobert then beat Lasha Shavdatuashvili, the 2012 Olympic champion, when the Georgian received a third penalty in the final second, and Clémence Emé made it 3-3. The deciding bout, chosen by draw, paired Gobert with Shavdatuashvili again: the Georgian won after 4 min 20 s of golden score.

A step towards Los Angeles

Thirteen nations competed in Belgrade, each with three women (-57, -70 and +70 kg) and three men (-73, -90 and +90 kg). The first team to four wins takes the match; at 3-3 a draw decides the category of the final bout. World ranking points from this event count at half value in the ranking that will qualify teams for the mixed team event at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

France had won this championship in 2022 and 2024, then finished seventh in Podgorica in 2025. The team was led by Daniel Fernandes (men) and Lucie Décosse (women). The next edition will be held in Istanbul in 2027, and the next stop on the circuit is the Zagreb Grand Prix from 13 to 15 November.