The reigning Olympic champion missed last year’s event due to the birth of her first child but came back to underline her dominance in the division with a little more than a year to go until Paris 2024.

Her daughter Athena was watching on as Agbégnénou became only the fifth judoka to win a world title for a sixth time.

There was no stopping Agbégnénou who swept her opponents aside from the first round through to the final where she proved too hot to handle for Slovenia's Andreja Leški.

It was the second time the pair had met in a gold-medal match having faced each other in 2021 and it ended with the same result.

Agbégnénou dominated from the word go, taking control of the grips as Leški received a shido.

Sensing victory with 30 seconds left, Agbégnénou threw Leški for the waza-ari before pinning her down for the ippon.

There was also a victory by ippon for Joanne van Lieshout of The Netherlands as she overcame Mexico's Prisca Awiti Alcaraz for bronze.

Hungary's Szofi Özbas secured the other place on the podium after throwing a seoi otoshi for waza-ari to beat Austria's Lubjana Piovesana in golden score.

There was also delight for Georgia as Tato Grigalashvili who produced a sensational display to retain his men’s under-81kg title.

It was the third successive final between Grigalashvili and Matthias Casse, with the Belgian winning the first of those in 2021 before the Georgian came out on top a year later.

Grigalashvili came flying out of the blocks in search of a second world crown as he threw Casse twice in the opening minute and was unlucky not to get off the mark.

Casse did not know what had hit him as he was thrown again before receiving a shido.

It was a clash between the top two seeds, but Grigalashvili was a class above as he threw a seoi nage for the waza-ari.

The Georgian received a late shido but that was the only blemish in a stunning showing as he celebrated in front of his fans even before the clock had gone dead.

South Korea's Lee Joon-hwan was also on the received end of a Grigalashvili onslaught in the semi-finals but bounced back to clinch bronze with victory over Canada's Francois Gauthier-Drapeau.

Japan's reigning Olympic champion Takanori Nagase sealed the other place on the podium after seeing off Israel’s 2019 world gold medallist Sagi Muki whose coach was ejected for the second match in a row for coaching from the sidelines.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow, with men’s under-90kg and women’s under-70kg categories set to be contested.