Yarden Gerbi made history on Thursday night when the 24-year-old became the first Israeli to win a gold medal at the Judo World Championships. The world number one defeated France’s European champion Clarisse Agbegnenou in just 43 seconds in Rio De Janeiro to win the -63 kilo category. It was a stunning performance throughout the championships for Gerbi who won all of her five fights by ippon – the judo equivalent of a knockout. Her final ippon even left Agbegnenou wincing on the floor in pain with dislocated shoulder. It wasn’t all near misses for the French contingent though, as Loic Pietri won the under 81 kilogram title to end Japan’s attempts at a clean sweep of the men’s events. In a tight and penalty-riddled final the 23-year-old from Nice beat Georgia’s Avtandili Tchrikishvili adding the senior crown to the world junior title he won in Paris in 2009. After four days of competition Pietri’s victory over the European champion handed France their first gold so far.