Making history: Georgia wins first ever mixed team medal at World Judo Championship

Georgia on Sunday won its first ever mixed team medal at the World Judo Championship in Doha, taking the bronze medal with the third place at the tournament.

The International Judo Federation said the third place fixture between Georgia and Germany had gone “back-and-forth, with the teams taking turns to win the contests”. 

That was until the very last contest, where Eteri Liparteliani threw her counterpart with tsubame-gaeshi for waza-ari and held on to give Georgia a 4-2 victory and their first ever mixed teams medal”, the body said in its summary of the final.

The result followed other medal-scoring performances by Georgian athletes at the competition that ran between May 7-14.

The 2022 European Champion Luka Maisuradze on Thursday defeated his compatriot Lasha Bekauri, the reigning Olympic Champion, in an all-Georgian final in the men’s under 90kg category.

In turn, that result came after Tato Grigalashvili earned his second World Champion’s title in a row after winning the -81 kg final.