To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
FUKUDA, TAKADA CONTINUE LEADERSHIP AT JWF
TOKYO (March 26) - The Japan Wrestling Federation has reelected Tomiaki
Fukuda as president and Yuji Takada as chairman of the board of directors
for a second two-year term. The JWF also retained Tsuneo tachikawa、Keizo
Suzuki, Tsutomu Hanahara and Kenshiro Matsunami as vice presidents.
Former female world champions Shoko Yoshimura and Miyu Yamamoto were among four women added to the JWF council to bring the number of women on the governing body to five. “These women contributed to the early development of women’s wrestling and we look forward to their work in the future as coaches and directors,” Fukuda said.
JWF representatives were told that the budget for 2005 would be 310
million yen, a decrease of about 30 million yen from 2004. Less money from
the Japanese Olympic Committee and troubles with the soccer lottery, which
was intended to generate more money for Japanese sports, were given as
reasons for this year’s smaller budget.
KASUMIGAURA WINS 15TH HS INVITATIONAL CROWN
NIIGATA, Niigata Prefecture (March 28) - Kasumigaura high school of
Ibaraki Prefecture defeated Kumamoto’s Tamana Kogyo to wins its third
straight and 15th overall team title at the high school wrestling national
invitational tournament.
Kasumigaura breezed past Tamana Kogyo 6-1 in the championship final at
Niigata municipal gymnasium after a similar blowout against Ginan Kogyo
of Gifu Prefecture in the semifinals. Tamana Kogyo defeated Tottori Chuo
Ikuei 7-0 in the other semifinal.
FORMER JR HS CHAMPIONS RULE AT HS INVITATIONAL
NIIGATA, Niigata Prefecture (March 29) - Six former junior high school national champions took home titles in the individual weight category competition at the high school wrestling national invitational tournament.
Hiroyuki Oda of Aomoroi’s Kosei Gakuin, who won three straight junior
high school titles from 2001 to 2003, breezed through the field at 55 kg
for his first high school crown. The other junior high champions to also
win at Niigata municipal gymnasium were Shota Omata (50 kg, Kasumigaura=Ibaraki),
Kazuki Morikawa (66, Kasumigaura), Yuki Nagata (74, Amino=Kyoto), Naoto
Komuro (84, Kasumigaura), and Nobuyoshi Arakida (120, Kosei Gakuin) .
The remaining to individual titles went to Yuhi Takemoto (60, Ritsumeikan
Uji=Kyoto) and Mizuki watanabe (96, Miyagi Kogyo).
IKEMATSU BREEZES AT UNIVERSIADE TRIALS
TOKYO (March 31) - World bronze medalist Kazuhiko Ikematsu breezed
to victory at the national team trials for this summer’s Universiade in
Turkey.
Ikematsu, a graduate student at Nippon Sports Science University, defeated
Meiji University freshman Shu Miyahara 7-0, 2-1 in the freestyle final
at 66 kg. Ikematsu, along with the 13 other winners, will be recommended
to the Japanese Olympic Committee for the delegation to compete at the
student games August 11-21 in Izmir, Turkey.
Other winners at the trials held at the national institute of sports
science in Tokyo were:
Freestyle
55 - Seshito Shimuzu
60 - Noriyuki Takatsuka
74 - Ryuta Takahashi
84 - Takao Isokawa
96 - Yoshitsugu Yoneyama
120 - Akihito Tanaka
Greco-roman
55 - Munehiro Wada
60 - Michimoto Fukuma
66 - Tsutomu Fujimura
74 - Tsukasa Tsurumaki
84 - Norikatsu Saikawa
96 - Kosuke Ishizawa
120 - Naoki Sawada
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NISHIMAKI WINS AT KLIPPAN LADIES
KLIPPAN, Sweden (March 5-6) - Japanese high school student Mio Nishimaki
upended former U.S. national champion Sally Roberts to win the 59-kg title
at the Klippan international women’s wrestling meet. Nishimaki, a student
at the high school affiliate of Chukyo Women’s University, defeated Roberts
2-0, 4-0 for the championship and was named the outstanding wrestler of
the senior division.
Meanwhile, Japan also got three titles in the cadet division from Yu
Horiuchi (43 kg, Kyoto), Mika Kajita (60, Aichi) and Shoko Inoue (65, Aichi)
for second place overall in the team standings.
Other Japanese place winners in the senior division were Nanae Suzuki
(51 kg, 5th), Yuyak Watabe (51, 8th), Miho Shibata (55, 2nd) and Mayumi
Umakoshi (55, 3rd).
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NAZARIAN HAILS SASAMOTO AS ‘VERY STRONG WRESTLER’
SOFIA (March 5-6) - Two-time Olympic champion Armen Nazarian hailed
Makoto Sasamoto as “very strong,” adding that he thought his Japanese
rival would be the toughest wrestler at 60 kg to beat at last summers Athens
Olympics.
Nazarian, gold medal winner at the 1996 Atlanta Games and 2000 Sydney
Olympics, edged Sasamoto in a controversial bout that had Japanese coaches
and fans protesting that the Bulgarian star had grabbed Sasamoto’s legs
in their greco-roman quarterfinal. “As always, I intended to win, but
Sasamoto is very strong. I think he was the toughest wrestler at 60 kg,”
said Nazarian. “Even though I wrestled him in Sydney, he had grown much
stronger over the last four years.”
Nazarian remarked that his 3-1 loss in the semifinals to Korea’s Jung
Ji-Hyun was the result of the effort he expended against Sasamoto in the
quarterfinals. “I wasn’t able to wrestler well in the semifinals. That’s
how tough the match with Sasamoto was,” Nazarian said. Nazarian, who took
home the bronze medal from Athens, added that Jung was deserving of the
gold medal, saying that “60 kg in greco-roman probably has the highest
level of wrestling.”
The 30-year-old Nazarian said he intended to be at the world championships
in Budapest in September, but added that he would sit out the European
championships in Varna, Bulgaria in April.
(Tsutsui of the Japan Sambo Federation contributed to this report.).