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)
NAT’L TEAMS HEADED TO U.S. FOR TRAINING
TOKYO - The men’s and women’s national
teams leave/left for the United States November
2 for a weeklong joint training camp with
the U.S. team in Colorado Springs. The training
camp, located 1,700 meters above sea level,
is scheduled to run until November 9 with
the teams returning to Japan on November
12.
JAPAN SENDING SQUADS TO KAZAKHSTAN FOR ASIA
CUP
TOKYO (October 25) - World champions
Seiko Yamamoto and Kaori Icho head up the
Japanese women’s team for the Asia Cup competition
in Almaty, Kazakhstan in November, the Japan
Wrestling Federation announced. The Asia
Cup, scheduled for November 28-29, will be
a regional version of the World Cup featuring
teams from Japan, China, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Women’s national team head coach Akira
Suzuki said that Japan had considered sending
its best wrestlers to the competition, but
because of injuries and academic commitments
a number of top competitors were replaced
by the second- and third-ranked wrestlers
in Japan.The women’s squad is scheduled
to leave for Kazakhstan on November 25.
Members of the Japanese greco-roman national
team will also travel to Kazakhstan at this
time. The greco-roman and freestyle Asia
Cup is scheduled to be held at the same time
as the women’s competition, but Japan is
not one of the countries entered. Instead,
the Japanese greco-roman team will take part
in a joint training camp with the Kazakh
team from November 19 to November 27.
The women’s delegation:Team manager - Akira
Suzuki
Coaches - Shigeo Kinase, Ryo Kanahama
Trainer - Yasuyuki Sasaki
48 kg - Misato Shimizu
51 kg - Ninako Hattori
55 kg - Seiko Yamamoto
59 kg - Rena Iwama
63 kg - Kaori Icho
67 kg - Norie Saito
72 kg - Miki Ninomiya
The men’s delegation:
Team manager - Hiromichi Ito
Coach - Hiroshi Kado
55 kg - Masatoshi Toyota, Takashi Yasuhara
60 kg - Makoto Sasamoto
66 kg - Masanori Oi
74 kg - Katsuhiko Nagata
84 kg - Shingo Matsumoto
SASAMOTO FALLS IN Q’FINALS AT SHIZUOKA KOKUTAI
HIGASHI IZU
Shizuoka Prefecture (October 29) - Makoto
Sasamoto, Japan’s mainstay in greco-roman
at 60 kg, found the competition too heavy
at 74 kg as he lost in the quarterfinals
of the Shizuoka National Sports Festival.
Sasamoto, who finished 17th at the greco-roman
world championships earlier in the month
at 60 kg, lost to former national team member
Taichi Suga at the Higashi Izu Rodosha Sports
Center.
Suga went on to win the title at 74 kg
in the annual multi-sport event known in
Japan as the “kokutai.”
Meanwhile, former Olympic freestyle team
member Kazuyuki Miyata made a successful
switch over to greco-roman by winning the
66-kg crown.Miyata, who wrestled in the 2000
Sydney Games, made the switch in a bid for
an Olympic berth after the Japan Wrestling
Federation tentatively named world bronze
medalist Kazuhiko Ikematsu as their choice
at 66 kg in freestyle for next year’s Athens
Olympics.
In the festival’s freestyle competition,
veteran Hidekazu Yokoyama won the battle
of national team members with a fall over
Olympic qualifier Kunihiko Obata in the 84-kg
final. Obata finished 10th at 74 kg at the
freestyle world championships in September.
In the schoolboys (high school) division,
Noriyuki Takatsuka repeated as champion at
63 kg for his fourth major title of the year
while Zen’ichi Yamagata added a fourth jewel
to his championship crown this year with
the title at 85 kg.
Individual winners were:
Greco-roman, adults
55 kg - Tomoya Murata, Shiga
60 kg - Shingo Hirai, Tokyo
66 kg - Kazuyuki Miyata, Fukushima
74 kg - Taichi Suga, Tokyo
84 kg - Mitsuhiro Ota, Oita
96 kg - Tsuneaki Ota, Saitama
120 kg - Katsuaki Suzuki, Tokyo
----
Greco-roman, schoolboys
50 kg - Yasuyuki Momiyama/Shoyama, Shizuoka
54 kg - Ryutaro Matsumoto, Gunma
58 kg - Ryutaro Sekiya, Kagoshima
63 kg - Kohei Fujimoto, Shizuoka
69 kg - Kazunori Okamoto, Shizuoka
76 kg - Tetsuya Saikawa, Tochigi
85 kg - Shinsuke Goto, Shizuoka
97 kg - Takahiro Shimonaka, Tokushima
120 kg - Katsunobu Takeuchi, Ibaraki
----
Freestyle, adults
55 kg - Tomohiro Matsunaga, Shizuoka
60 kg - Kenji Inoue, Saitama
66 kg - Mitsuhiro Amagai, Ibaraki
74 kg - Yuji Kudo, Okayama
84 kg - Hidekazu Yokoyama, Akita
96 kg - Kiyotaka Kodaira, Tokyo
120 kg - Kohei Suwama, Fukushima
----
Freestyle, schoolboys
50 kg - Naoki Tomioka, Nagano
54 kg - Hidekazu Tomita, Kagoshima
58 kg - Shigeki Ozawa, Ibaraki
63 kg - Noriyuki Takatsuka, Ibaraki
69 kg - Otsuki, Oita
76 kg - Kudo, Aomori
85 kg - Zen’ichi Yamagata, Kanagawa
97 kg - Katsuya Kitamura, Tokyo
120 kg - Satoshi Akiyama, Shizuoka
HAMAGUCHI, K. ICHO SCORE FALLS IN KOKUTAI
EXHIBITION
HIGASHI IZU, Shizuoka (October 29) -
World champions Kyoko Hamaguchi and Kaori
Icho scored falls in an exhibition of women’s
wrestling at the Shizuoka National Sports
Festival. While the Japanese women have been
setting the standard for women’s wrestling
around the world for the last decade, it
was only the second time that women’s wrestling
has been part of the program of Japan’s
domestic version of the Olympics.
Exhibition results:
51 kg - Chiharu Icho df. Yuko Motohashi by
TF, 1:36
63 kg - Kaori Icho df. Chie Ishii by fall,
1:33
72 kg - Kyoko Hamaguchi df. Ayako Murashima
by fall, 1:42
TAKUSHOKU WINS 4TH STRAIGHT COLLEGIATE GRECO
CROWN
TOKYO (October 9-10) - Wrestlers from Takushoku
University won four individual titles as
the Tokyo school won its fourth straight
collegiate greco-roman championship crown.
Takushoku’s Bunsei Murakami won the title
at 55 kg to give him a sweep of the championship
and collegiate open crowns for a third straight
year.
Naoki Sawada, also of Takushoku, repeated
as champion at 120 kg. Kokushikan University’s
Tsukasa Tsurumaki, who represented Japan
at the Asian championships in June, took
the championship at 74 kg as a freshman.
In the team race, Nippon Sports Science University
finished second without an individual championship
while Chuo University won two titles for
third place overall.
Individual champions were:
55 kg - Bunsei Murakami, Takushoku
60 kg - Takuya Hasegawa, Chuo
66 kg - Nobutake Nakai, Takushoku
74 kg - Tsukasa Tsurumaki, Kokushikan
84 kg - Jun Aisawa, Chuo
96 kg - Nobuhiko Maeshima, Takushoku
120 kg - Naoki Sawada, Takushoku
Team standings
1. Takushoku, 60 points; 2. NSSU, 49; 3.
Chuo, 31; 4. Kokushikan, 29; 5.
Tokuyama, 23; 6. Nihon, 22; 7. Kanagawa,
16; 8. Aoyama Gakuin, 13.