To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）

February wrestling news



MATSUNAGA WINS AT YASAR DOGU, TANAKA 3RD


　　TOKYO (February 21) -Tomohiro Matsunaga won four bouts and did not dropa set as the former university world champion claimed the 55-kg title at the Yasar Dogu freestyle international in Turkey. National champion Akihito Tanaka, meanwhile, snared third place at 120 kg.

　　Following the Yasar Dogu meet, the Japanese team was scheduled to move to Bulgaria for an international training camp prior to the Dan Kolov international in Sofia, March 5-6. The team will return to Japan March 8.
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Results of bouts involving Japanese wrestlers:

55 kg -MATSUNAGA, Tomohiro (1st, 22 entries)
1R -df. Yang Jae-Hoon (KOR), 2-0 (4-1, 7-0tf)
QF -df. Asgahhan Novruzov (AZE), 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)
SF -df. Vusal Zxundov (AZE), 2-0 (1-0, 5-2)
F1 -df. Namid Sevdimov (AZE), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)

55 kg -INABA, Yasuhiro (14th, 22 entries)
1R -lost of Tekin Soyar (TUR), 0-2 (3-3, 2-3)

60 kg -KOJIMA, Tadafumi (16th, 27 entries)
1R -lost to Bicer Mustafa (TUR), 1-2 (8-3, 1-3, 3-3)

60 kg -YUMOTO, Kenichi (23rd, 27 entries)
1R -lost to Eldar Misirov (RUS), 0-2 (0-4, 1-4)

66 kg -IKEMATSU, Kazuhiko (12th, 28 entries)
1R -df. Kiyofumi Kanabuchi (JPN), 2-1 (0-1, 1-1, 1-1)
2R -lost to Kim Dae-Sung (KOR), 1-2 (0-1, 2-1, 3-3)

66 kg -KANABUCHI, Kiyofumi (17th, 28 entries)
1R -lost to Kazuhiko Ikematsu (JPN), 1-2 (1-0, 1-1, 1-1)

74 kg -OBATA, Kunihiko (10th, 21 entries)
2R -df. Kiril Terziev (BUL), 2-1 (0-1, 1-0, 4-3)
3R -lost to Mocid Mohammadi (IRI), 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)

74 kg -TAKAHASHI, Ryuta (12th, 21 entries)
1R -lost to Hakki Ceylan (TUR), 0-2 (0-5, 3-5)

84 kg -ISOKAWA, Takao (7th, 23 entries)
1R -df. Fatih Terziev (TUR), 2-1 (0-1, 2-0, 2-0)
2R -df. Adjzev Aznavur (RUS), 2-1 (1-1, 1-0, 2-0)
3R -lost to Osman Ozgan (TUR), 1-2 (0-1, 2-1, 0-2)

84 kg -MATSUMOTO, Shinya (13th, 23 entries)
2R -df. Nuri Zengun (TUR), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
3R -lost to Gokhan Yavaser (TUR), 0-2 (?)
c1 -lost to Ziya Kambar (TUR), ?

96 kg -KODAIRA, Kiyotaka (17th, 19 entries)
1R -lost to Dimitar Kumthev (BUL), 0-2 (0-1, 0-3)

120 kg -TANAKA, Akihito (3 rd , 11 entries)
1R -df. Mehdi Baghbanian (IRI), 2-0 (3-3, 3-3)
SF -lost to Saban Yilmaz (TUR), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)
F3 -df. Sefa Ungor (TUR) by fall, 1:25

S. YAMAMOTO, SHODA AT 59 FOR QUEENS CUP


　　TOKYO (February 25) -Four-time world champion Seiko Yamamoto and Ayako Shoda are both entered at 59 kg for this year's Japan Queens Cup tournament. A total of 62 wrestlers are entered in the senior division for the March 25 meet at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo. The meet will also serve as the national team trials for this year's world championships in Budapest. Yamamoto, recovering from a knee operation last fall, will seek to get back on track in a bid to defend the world title she won at the 2003 world championships. University world champion Shoda, meanwhile, who came up short in her Olympic bid at 63 kg, will try a new weight category in an effort to return to the national team.

　　At 51 kg, Olympic silver medalist Chiharu Icho will move up from 48 kg and challenge long-time rival Hitomi Sakamoto for a national team berth.

GR TEAM LEAVES FOR TRAINING CAMP IN POLAND


　　TOKYO (February 28) -The Japanese greco-roman team left for an international training camp near Warsaw, Poland and will later take part in the Poland Open in Walbrych, March 12-13. The training camp is expected to host some of Europe's top greco-roman wrestlers and will give the Japanese squad a chance to test the new FILA rules. The squad will return to Japan on March 15.

JAPANESE WOMEN HOLD 1ST TRAINING CAMP


　　TOKYO (February 16) -The Japanese women's wrestling team opened their first training camp of 2005 at the national training center in Tokyo. National team director Hideaki Tomiyama and Japan's top women's coaches took part in the training camp, which included instruction from 1984 Olympic champion Tomiyama.

　　National team head coach Kazuhito Sakae said that the goal of the training camp was to become familiar with the new rules of wrestling implemented by FILA this year. Ryo Kanahama explained some of the intricacies of the new rules he observed as a coach at the Yarygin international in January.

ASIAN JR MEET MOVED TO JEJU


　　TOKYO (February 12) -This year's Asian junior wrestling championships have been moved to the Korean island of Jeju, according to the official FILA website.

　　The championships were originally scheduled to be held June 14-19 in Qatar. It was intended to be a practice event for next year's Asian Games in Qatar's capitol of Doha. The new location and dates, June 8-12, were listed in the calendar section of the FILA webiste.

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