To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
:wmay52@hotmail.com)
MATSUMOTO WINS 2, PLACES 10TH ON DAY 4 OF WORLD C’SHIPS
GUANGZHOU, China (September 28) - National team newcomer Shinya Matsumoto
notched a pair of wins and Takafumi Kojima posted a third victory for Japan
at Tianhe Gymnasium. But, Japan’s three entries on the fourth day of the
world championships left the arena empty-handed -- as all fell to wrestlers
who eventually lost in the semifinals.
Matsumoto, looking to match the performance of Nihon University teammate
Noriyuki Takatsuka the day before, notched nail-biting wins in the first
two rounds. Takatsuka took a bronze medal at 60 kg with some hard-nosed
wrestling and late come-from-behind victories.
In the first round, Matsumoto opened with a flying double-leg takedown
for three points against Soslan Gattsiev of Belarus and then held off a
late cross-ankle turn in the first period to forge a 3-3, 3-1 victory.
In his second match, Matsumoto trailed Macedonia’s Dejan Bogdanov 3-4 in
the second period, but chased the Euro junior bronze medalist out of bounds
for a point and then took a single-leg and footsweep for the win.
Matsumoto’s purple patch of good fortune, however, ran out in the quarterfinals
as he was shut down by Uzbekistan’s Zaurbek Sokhiev in a 0-1, 0-4 loss.
Matsumoto was eliminated from the competition and forced to settle for
10th place when Sokhiev lost in the semifinals to defending world champion
Reza Mindorashivili.
Sokhiev, runner-up in this year’s Asia championships, eventually took
a bronze medal. The other bronze medal at 84 kg went to Reza Yazdani of
Iran. In the gold medal final, Mindorashvili fell to 2003 world champion
Sajid Sajidov of Russia.
At 66 kg, Kojima opened with a one-sided win against Australia’s Gentian
Balashi, but was overwhelmed 1-3, 0-7 by Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik in the
round of 16. Stadnik, a bronze medalist in the European championships this
year, added another bronze to his collection with victory by fall over
last year’s world runner-up Serafim Barzakov of Bulgaria. The other bronze
medal went to Geandry Garzon of Cuba, repeating his showing of 2005.
In the gold medal match, American Bill Zadick edged Otar Tushishvili of Georgia 2-1 for his first world title.
At 74 kg, Kunihiko Obata lost his opening match in a give-and-take battle
with last year’s junior world champion Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria. Ganev
upset Buvaisa Saitiev of Russia 2-1 in the quarterfinals and denied the
six-time world champion a chance for a record-tying seventh freestyle world
title.
Ganev lost to Ukraine’s Ilbragim Aldatov in the semifinals, eliminating
Obata, and then fell again to 2005 Asia runner-up Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan
in the match for bronze medal. Aldatov won his first world title in a one-sided
bout with Iran’s Ali Barzi Asghar while American Don Pritzlaff took the
other bronze medal at 74 kg.
----
Results of matches involving Japanese entries:
Freestyle
66 kg - KOJIMA, Takafumi (15th, 35 entries)
Pr - df. Gentian Balashi (AUS), 2-0 (6-0, 6-0)
Knee picks and ankle picks give Kojima the one-sided win.
R1 - lost to Andriy Stadnik (UKR) 0-2 (1-3, 0-7)
A single leg and gut wrench in the first period and a knee pick and gut wrenches in the second show Kojima an early exit.
----
74 kg - OBATA, Kunihiko (21st, 35 entries)
R1 - lost to Mihail Ganev (BUL) 1-2 (1-0, 1-2, 0-1)
Obata takes the first period from the clinch, but cannot get anything going in the next two periods against the powerful youngster from Bulgaria.
----
84 kg - MATSUMOTO, Shinya (10th, 31 entries)
R1 - df. Soslan Gattsiev (BLR), 2-0 (3x-3, 3-1)
Matsumoto squandered a 3-0 first period lead, but stopped a cross-ankle turn to take the first period on his way to victory in his world team debut.
R2 - df. Dejan Bogdanov (MKD), 2-0 (1-0, 5-4)
Matsumoto won in the clinch in the first period, but again squandered a 3-0 lead in the second before rallying with a force-out point and a foot sweep.
QF - lost to Zaurbek Sokhiev (UZB), 2-0 (1-0, 4-0)
Giving up the first period, Matsumoto tried to avoid giving up a point in the second, but was arched over to his back for three points.