To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

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

JAPAN WINLESS ON 1ST DAY OF WORLD C’SHIPS





　　　GUANGZHOU, China (September 25) - Japan got off to a rocky start on the opening day of the wrestling world championships as its three entries in the greco-roman style lost first-round matches Masatoshi Toyota (55 kg), Makoto Sasamoto (60) and Masaki Imuro (66) were then denied a chance to advance to the consolation bracket when their first-round opponents lost in subsequent matches.

　　　For Toyota, his 1-2 loss to Jagniel Hernandez of Cuba was especially difficult as he appeared to win with a late bodylock and takedown. Following a video review, officials disallowed the would-be winning point ruling that Toyota had used his legs to secure the takedown. Toyota was eliminated when Hernandez lost his next match to Lindsey Durlacher, who went on to win a bronze medal for the United States.

　　　Also at 55 kg, Hamid Soryan Reihanpour of Iran successfully defended the title he won a year ago in Budapes with a 3-0, 3-0 win over Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan. The other bronze medal at 55 kg went to Park Eun-Chol of Korea, the silver medalist in Budapest.

　　　At 60 kg, Sasamoto battled Asian champion Nurbakyt Tengizbayev evenly through two periods, but was the wheels fell off the wagon in the third period when hit with a two-point penalty for a false start in the par terre position. Tengizbayev of Kazakhstan lost to Turkey’s Emik Bunyamin in the quarterfinals, knocking Sasamoto out of the tournament. Bunyamin, who opened with a win over defending world champion Armen Nazarian of Bulgaria, went on to win a bronze medal.

　　In the gold medal final, American Joe Warren outlasted European silver medalist David Bedinadze of Georgia for a

　　The other bronze medal went to Djaste Vyacheslav of Russia, who was also a bronze medalist at the European championships.

　　At 66 kg, Masaki Imuro could not stop the gut wrench of Ion Panait and went down 0-6, 0-3 to the Romanian journeyman. Panait lost in the quarterfinals to Russia’s Sergey Kovalenko, who took a bronze medal along with Harry Lester of the United States. In the gold medal final at 66 kg, hometown favorite Li Yanyan completed an excellent run of wrestling with a 6-0, 0-5, 5-4 win over Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan.
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Results of matches involving Japanese entries:

55 kg - TOYOTA, Masatoshi (19, 32 entries)
R1 - lost to Jagniel Hernandez (CUB), 1-2 (4-0, 1-1x, 1-2)
Toyota made a promising start with a reverse waist-lock and turn in the first period. After giving up the second period, Toyota appeared to score the winning point with a bodylock and takedown. The point, however, was taken away after a video review.

60 kg - SASAMOTO, Makoto (23, 34 entries)
R1 - lost to Nurkybat Tengizbayev (KAZ), 1-2 (1-2, 3-0, 0-6)
Tengizbayev scored the first point with an arm spin to go behind for the first period. Sasamoto countered with a gut wrench in the second. Sasamoto was hit with a 2-point false start penalty in the third period and Tengizbayev broke the match open.

66 kg - IMURO, Masaki (28, 32 entries)
R1 - lost to Ion Panait (ROM), 0-2 (0-6, 0-3)