ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Teddy Riner of France won the gold medal in the over 100kg category at the world judo championships in Astana on Saturday, defeating Ryu Shichinohe of Japan in the final.

In so doing, and at 26 years of age, he became the first judoka to win eight world titles, seven of them coming in the over 100kg class.

Riner is now unbeaten in 95 bouts, his last loss coming in September 2010 when he dopped a points decision to Japan's Daiki Kamikawa in the final of the open-category division at the world championships.

The bronze medals went to Adam Okruashvili of Georgia and to Iakiv Khammo of Ukraine.

Earlier Japan's Ryunosuke Haga won the men's under 100kg category, defeating Karl-Richard Frey of Germany in the final.

The bronze medals went to Belgium's Toma Nikiforov and Dimitri Peters of Germany.

In the women's competition, Yu Song of China won the women's over 78kg category with a win over Japan's Megumi Tachimoto in the final.

The bronze medals went to Kanae Yamabe of Japan and Cuba's Idalys Ortiz.