To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
Kyodo World Services, senior sports writer:wmay52@hotmail.com)
NAGATA TUMBLES IN GR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
PATRAS (Greece) - Olympic silver medalist Katsuhiko Nagata
was stunned with an upset loss to unheralded
Moises Sanchez of Spain on Friday at the
46th greco-roman wrestling world championships.
Nagata forged a 2-0 lead at the break of
his 69-kg match at Dimitrios Tofalos Stadium
in the Greek port city, but let the young
Spaniard take control of the second period
with a six-point back-arching throw on his
way to a stunning 9-2 victory.
Nagata's loss, coupled
with Sanchez' earlier 5-3 win over Endrix
Arteaga, guarantees that the Spanish grappler
will advance to championship bracket while
the runner-up at last year's Sydney Olympics
will head for home empty-handed. "I
took my opponent too lightly and then got
overly excited (in the second period,"
Nagata said after the bout.
The Japanese team captain,
seeking to wrap up the bout in regulation,
gambled he could score the needed third point
with a gut wrench early in the second period,
only to slip underneath Sanchez and fall
to his shoulders, making the score 2-2.
Sanchez came back with
a lift and high-arching throw that put Nagata
on his back for an 8-2 lead and then added
an insurance point with another lift and
throw. "Really, all I can say now is
that I will try and do my best in the future.
I never want to let this kind of thing happen
again," Nagata said dejectedly after
the loss.
Also on Friday, Makoto
Sasamoto, who finished eighth at the Sydney
Olympics, launched his bid for a medal at
58 kg with three under-arm spins and an 11-2
victory over Hugo Passos of Portugal. A win
over Ravinder Singh of India on Saturday
will likely put Sasamoto into the championship
bracket against two-time Olympic champion
Armen Nazarian of Bulgaria, who breezed to
two easy wins on Friday.
Japan national team newcomer
Tomoya Murata, meanwhile, failed in his bid
for a berth in the quarterfinals at 54 kg,
falling to Khatri Mukesh of India 7-1 in
the first round of the championship playoffs.
Murata spotted the 19-year-old Asia junior
champion a six-point lead in the first period
of the 54-kg match and could not make up
the difference in the second three-minute
stanza, settling for ninth place in the lightest
weight category.
Murata, a 24-year-old
school teacher from Shiga, had qualified
for the championship bracket with wins over
Turkish veteran Bayram Ozdemir, 3-1 in overtime,
and Anders Nyblom of Denmark (3-0) on Thursday.
Mukesh, meanwhile, fell 4-3 to Olympic silver
medalist Lazaro Rivas of Cuba in the quarterfinals.
At 85 kg, another national
team debutante Shingo Matsumoto opened with
a technical fall win over Jerry Van De Pool
of the Netherlands, but lost his second match
to Olympic silver medalist Sandor Bardosi
of Hungary, 3-2 in overtime.
At 63 kg, two-time world
champion at 58 kg Kim In-Sub of South Korea
moved into the 63-kg semifinals along with
Michael Beilin of Israel, Olympic runner-up
Juan Maren of Cuba and Armenia's Vagninak
Galustyan.At 69 kg, Olympic champion Filiberto
Azcuy breezed to a pair of wins, while Olympic
bronze medalist Alexei Gloushkove of Russia
also advanced with two easy wins. At 76 kg,
European champion Alexei Mishine of Russia
and runner-up Ara Abrahamian of Sweden booked
berths in the semifinals along with Korea's
Kim Jin-Soo and Sergiy Solodkyy of Ukraine.
Two-time Olympic champion
Hamza Yerlikaya opened with a win at 85 kg
and American Matt Lindland, a silver medalist
in Sydney at 76 kg, found a heavier weight
category to his liking with a 7-0 win over
Bojan Mijatov of Yugoslavia.
European champion Alexandre
Bezroutchikine of Russia edged into the semifinals
with a 2-1 overtime win over Aleksey Cheglakov
of Uzbekistan. At 130 kg, Olympic champion
Rulon Gardner of the United State fashioned
a 3-0 win over Yuriy Yevseychyk of Israel
while European champion Mihaly Deak-Bardos
of Hungary and perennial challenger Sergei
Moureyko of Bulgaria also posted early wins.