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Greece's Ilias Iliadis lit up the Palais Omnisport de Bercy here on Friday with a brilliant performance to retain his under-90kg title at the Judo World Championships.

But it was hosts France who had the most to celebrate as Lucie Decosse and Audrey Tcheumeo won the women's under-70kg and under-78kg categories respectively.

Iliadis, a Georgian who defected to Greece to take part in the Athens Olympics in 2004, is widely regarded as the most spectacular thrower in world judo and he didn't disappoint.

Since winning Olympic and European titles at under-81kg in 2004 as a 20-year-old, Iliadis failed to land a major title again until last year, despite reaching the world final in 2005 and 2007.

But he has now won the last two world titles and a second European crown earlier this year, all at under-90kg.

He was brilliant here despite a slow start in which he squeezed past Poland's Robert Krawczyk by a penalty.

He picked things up in the next round against Algeria's Lyes Bouyakoub whom he pinned for victory.

And that was when he really started to find his rhythm as he threw Moldova's Ivan Remarenco with a stunning standing shoulder throw (ippon-seoi-nage) and then dumped Brazil's Hugo Pessanha with a counter-sweep (kosoto-gake).

In the semi-final he produced a powerful pick-up rear throw (ura-nage) to beat Russia's Kiril Denisov before delivering a piece de resistance in the final.

Faced with the man he beat a year ago in Tokyo to claim gold, Japan's Daiki Nishiyama, Iliadis attacked with a hip throw (tsuri-goshi) before turning it into an angled foot reap (osoto-gari) to plunge his opponent into the mat for a maximum ippon.

Nishiyama reached the final by defeating compatriot Takashi Ono, ranked one place above him in the world at number two, in the semi-final by a minor score.

Ono came back to win bronze as he upset 2009 world champion Lee Kyu-Won with a delightful inner thigh throw (uchi-mata) for ippon 30 seconds from the end.

Until that point it had been all Lee who scored a minor yuko with a shoulder throw (seoi-nage) and then a half-point waza-ari with a shoulder wheel technique (kata-guruma).

Decosse was a class apart as she retained the title she won in Tokyo last year making it three world crowns in total having also reigned at under-63kg in 2005.

She began by pinning Angola's Antonia Moreira and then threw Linda Bolder of the Netherlands with uchi-mata.

She used an inner reap (ouchi-gari) to dispatch both Russia's Anastasia Gubadova and North Korea's Sol Kyong before she then produced a stunning osoto-gari to beat Hungary's Anett Meszaros in the semi-finals.

She came up against European champion, former world champion and world number two Edith Bosch of the Netherlands in the final but her opponent let nerves get to her.

She lacked confidence, failed to engage and picked up three penalties to hand Decosse victory.

Japan's Yoriko Kunihara beat Onix Cortes Aldama of Cuba for bronze with Meszaros taking her fourth World Championship medal (two silvers and two bronze).

Tcheumeo, the European champion, was in inspired form in the championship fights as she foot-swept (sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi) German veteran Heide Wollert in the quarter-finals and then edged out 2010 champion Kayla Harrison of the United States in the semis.

In the final it was another wonderful foot sweep (de-ashi-barai) that did for Japan's world number one Akari Ogata.

Harrison beat 2009 world champion Marhinde Verkerk of the Netherlands for bronze with Wollert going down to rising Brazilian star Myra Aguiar.

AFP