To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
October wrestling news
TAKUSHOKU WINS COLLEGIATE GRECO CROWN
TOKYO (October 6-7) - Takushoku University wrestlers took four individual
titles and gave the Tokyo school its fifth title overall in the collegiate
greco-roman wrestling national championships. Ryuji Yamaguchi, who won
the 96-kg crown for Takushoku, was named the outstanding wrestler of the
competition at Tokyo’s Komazawa Gymnasium. Yamaguchi of Tottori also won
the collegiate open title in August.
Takushoku, which last won the team title in 2003, was followed in
the team standings by Nippon Sports Science University and Waseda University.
Noritomo Eto led the way for Takushoku on the first day of competition
by taking the 66-kg championship. It was the second year in a row in which
the 22-year-old Fukuoka native has won titles in both the collegiate open
and collegiate nationals.
−−−−−−
Results of individual championship finals and third-place winners:
55 kg
Kazuma Kuramoto (Taku) df. Yoshiki Ueda (Tokuyama), 2-1
3rd - Kohei Hasegawa (Aoyama Gakuin), Yasuaki Mitani (Kokushikan)
60 kg
Ryutaro Matsumoto (NSSU) df. Yoshitaka Kido (Toku), 2-1
3rd - Kenta Iwasaki (Senshu), Kaoru Yasuzawa (Waseda)
66 kg
Noritomo Eto (Taku) df. Takamasa Kobayashi (Waseda) by disq., 3P=1:30
3rd - Fumiya Itakura (AGU), Yuichi Urushihara (Kanagawa)
74 kg
Hideki Goto (NSSU) df. Yasunori Mori (Yamanashi Gakuin) , 2-0
3rd - Takao Nezu (Waseda) , Teppei Okamoto (Taku)
84 kg
Takao Isokawa (Taku) df. Katsuyuki Goto (YGU) by fall, 2P=1:48
3rd - Tsukasa Tsurumaki (Koku), Takuya Ito (Waseda)
96 kg
Ryuji Yamaguchi (Taku) df. Ken Sogabe (Koku), 2-0
3rd - Kenzo Sakamoto (Nihon Bunri), Tetsuro Asami (Waseda)
120 kg
Tetsuya Shato (NSSU) df. Atsushi Nakamura (Taku), 2-1
3rd - Iori Yasuda (Waseda), Katsuya Kitamura (Senshu)
DATES CHANGED FOR 2006 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
BUDAPEST (October 2) - The 2006 World Cup of women’s wrestling will
be held May 20-21 next year, a week earlier than originally scheduled,
in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, the Aichi Prefecture Wrestling
Association has reported.
The change hopefully will allow the United States and Canada to compete
in the World Cup meet ahead of the Pan American championships May 31-June
4 in Brazil.
In a related development, the 2005 Asia Cup competition scheduled
for Mongolia in November has been cancelled and removed from the FILA calendar.
TOKAMACHI FETES TRIUMPHANT WOMEN’S TEAM
TOKAMACHI, Niigata (October 11) - The city that serves as the main
training site for Japan’s female wrestling squad feted the team upon its
triumphant return from the world championships in Budapest.
The Japanese women won their third straight world-level team title
and crowned four individual world champions -- Hitomi Sakamoto (51 kg),
Saori Yoshida (55), Ayako Shoda (59) and Kaori Icho (63).
Manabu Oshima, 大 島 孳 head of the team’s fan club in Tokamachi, said
“Last year we were overwhelmed with the success of the women at the Athens
Olympics. This year, the team has returned again in triumph with very
pleasing results.”
National team head coach Kazuhito Sakae thanked everyone for their support
and then added that the team would do its best to win all seven categories
next year and all four gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The
following day, the women’s squad opened a training camp with Japan Wrestling
Federation president Tomiaki Fukuda leading the instruction.
TAOKA WINS AT SUNKIST INT’L
TEMPE, Arizona (October 20-22) - Hideki Taoka of the Japanese Self-Defense
Forces team won four matches to claim the freestyle 55-kg title at the
Sunkist International Open.
Shinya Odate (FS, 60) and Shinichiro Moriyama (GR, 60) won bronze medals
for Japan while two more wrestlers finished in fifth place.
OSAWA WINS FS 60 AT NAT’L SPORTS FESTIVAL
KURASHIKI, Okayama (October 23-24) - Asia junior champion Shigeki
Osawa defeated national team member Kenichi Yumoto in the semifinals and
went on to win the 60-kg title in freestyle at the National Sports Festival.
It was the third straight sports festival championship for Osawa of Yamanashi
Gakuin University, who also won in the high school division the previous
two years.
Meanwhile, former Olympic team members Kazuhiko Ikematsu and Hidekazu
Yokoyama won championships at 66 and 84, respectively. Yokoyama, a high
school teacher from Akita, won for the third straight year.
Tokyo policeman Kiyotaka Kodaira posted his fourth straight triumph
at 96 kg while Aomori student Nobuyoshi Arakida won the 120-kg crown in
the high school division for a second year in a row.
Results of senior divison finals:
55 - Masashi Saito df. Hisayasu Yasushi by fall, 1P=1:48
60 - Shigeki Ozawa df. Hiroki Sekikawa, 2-0
66 - Kazuhiko Ikematsu df. Kiyofumi Kanabuchi, 2P=1:39
74 - Yuji Kudo df. Yosuke Kato, 2-0
84 - Hidekazu Yokoyama df. Satoru Yamamoto, 2-1
96 - Kiyotaka Kodaira df. Takenori Yokoyama, 2-0
120 - Akihito Tanaka df. Yoshitsugu Yoneyama, 2-1
IMURO EDGES SASAMOTO IN NAT’L SPORTS FESTIVAL GRECO
KURASHIKI, Okayama (October 25-26) - Masaki Imuro edged fellow national
team member Makoto Sasamoto for the 66 kg title in greco-roman at the National
Sports Festival. Imuro, 16th in this year’s world championships, claimed
a 2-0 win over Sasamoto, who was wrestling up a weight after taking 10th
at 60 kg in
Budapest.
Also from the national team, Shingo Matsumoto won easily at 84 kg while
96-kg representative Kenzo Kato went up to 120 to win the sports festival
title. At 74 kg, former national team member Taichi Suga defeated this
year’s world meet entry Yuki Iwasaki for the title.
Host Okayama Prefecture won the overall team title in wrestling with
94.5 points, followed by Nagano and Fukuoka.
Results of senior championship finals:
55 - Tomoya Murata df. Kohei Hasegawa, 2-1
60 - Michimoto Fukuma df. Ryutaro Matsumoto, 2-0
66 - Masaki Imuro df. Makoto Sasamoto, 2-0
74 - Taichi Suga df. Yuki Iwasaki by fall, 3P=1:27
84 - Shingo Matsumoto df. Katsuyuki Goto, 2-0
96 - Ryuji Yamaguchi df. Yusuke Morikaku, 2-1
120 - Kenzo Kato df. Manabu Fusehira, 2-0