It was the hoped-for grand finale.

The German judokas won bronze at the Olympic premiere of the mixed team competition in Tokyo.

In one of the two small finals they defeated the Netherlands 4-2 on Saturday.

The German Judo Association (DJB) ends the games in Japan with three medals - two more than in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

In the previous individual, Eduard Trippel from Rüsselsheim had won silver in the weight class up to 90 kilograms and the Ravensburger world champion Anna-Maria Wagner (class up to 78 kilograms) also won bronze.

In the team competition, in which up to three men and three women each go on the mat for one team, the Germans had initially defeated the refugee team of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 4-0 and in the quarter-finals against Japan 2-4 lost. With a 4: 2 over Mongolia in the hope round they qualified for one of the bronze fights.

Wagner, who had been spared from an elbow injury until then, was also used in this. After an energetic performance, she defeated the Dutch World Cup third Guusje Steenhuis by Waza-ari and thus ensured the German 2-1 lead. Previously, Giovanna Scoccimarro had lost against European champion Sanne van Dijke and Dominic Ressel had won against former world champion Noel Van TEnd in the Golden Score. Karl-Richard Frey lost against Henk Grol, but the World Cup third Theresa Stoll made the preliminary decision with her victory in the Golden Score over Sanne Verhagen. Sebastian Seidl then made everything clear against Tornike Tsjakadoea also in the Golden Score.

"The troop that we have here together is something special," said DJB sports director Hartmut Paulat of the German press agency (dpa) even before the final appearance in the venerable martial arts temple Nippon Budokan.

"She has grown together over the last Olympic cycle and has already shown several times that potential can be released in team competitions that you may not always see in individual competitions."

In Tokyo, that was enough in the quarter-finals against the Japanese with five reigning Olympic champions, against whom the DJB team already led 2-0 and, according to Paulat, showed a "very, very strong fight", almost to the surprise - and via the small detour round of hope at the end of the day there was actually a medal.