To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
:wmay52@hotmail.com)
JAPANESE FS, GR TEAMS SELECTED FOR WINTER TOURS
TOKYO (February 4) - The Japan Wrestling Federation announced its freestyle
and greco-roman squads for their annual winter tour of Europe. The national
team committee of the JWF, meanwhile, decided to leave its heavier wrestlers
at home in order to prepare for the Asian championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan
in April.
The greco-roman team is scheduled to compete in the Poland Open in Chelm
on March 11-12 and then move to Bulgaria for the Nikola Petro International
Golden Grand Prix event in Sofia the following week. The freestyle team,
meanwhile, will wrestle in the Independence Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
March 10-12, and then will train in Bulgaria before the March 25-26 Dan
Kolov International in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
In a related development, national champion Tsukasa Sato was originally
scheduled to make the freestyle trip at 66 kg for Japan, but the Waseda
University student had to withdraw because of an injury. All-Japan runner-up
Kohei Fujimoto will make the European tour instead while third-ranked Takafumi
Kojima is tabbed for the April 6-9 Asian championships.
Rosters for the European tours:
Greco-roman
55 kg - Masatoshi Toyota (Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department), Kohei
Hasegawa (Aoyama Gakuin University)
60 kg - Makoto Sasamoto (ALSOK Sogo Keibi Hosho)
66 kg - Masaki Imuro (Japan Self Defense Forces)
74 kg - Tsukasa Tsurumaki (Kokushikan University)
84 kg - Shingo Matsumoto (Ichimiya Transport)
----
Freestyle
55 kg - Tomohiro Matsunaga (ALSOK), Yasuhiro Inaba (Senshu University),
Hideki Taoka (Japan SDF)
60 kg - Kenichi Yumoto (Nippon Sports Science University), Noriyuki Takatsuka
(Nihon University)
66 kg - Kohei Fujimoto (Takushoku University)
74 kg - Kunihiko Obata (ALSOK), Kazuyuki Nagashima (Clean-up)
JAPAN TO SEND 3 WORLD CHAMPS TO ASIAN C'HIPS
TOKYO (February 6) - The Japan Wrestling Federation has announced that
it plans to send three reigning and former world champions to the Asian
wrestling championships in Kazakhstan in April.
The Japanese delegation for the championships in Almaty, April 6-9, will
include four-time former world champion Seiko Yamamoto at 59 kg, Ayako
Shoda (the reigning world champ at 59 kg) at 63 kg and five-time champion
Kyoko Hamaguchi at 72 kg.
The men's freestyle and greco-roman teams, meanwhile, will be filled
out with the second- and third-ranked wrestlers in Japan, since a number
of national champions will compete on winter tours in Europe in March.
Men's freestyle
55 kg - Masashi Saito (Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department)
60 kg - Shinichi Inoue (Tokyo MPD)
66 kg - Takafumi Kojima (Nippon Sports Science University)
74 kg - Kosuke Kato (NSSU, coach)
84 kg - Yutaka Suzuki (Japan Self Defense Forces)
96 kg - Kiyotaka Kodaira (Tokyo MPD)
120 kg - Akihito Tanaka (FEG)
Men's greco-roman
55 kg - Shingo Hirai (ALSOK Sogo Keibi Hosho)
60 kg - Hideo Kitaoka (NSSU)
66 kg - Yutaka Fujimura (Japan SDF)
74 kg - Taichi Suga (Tokyo MPD)
84 kg - Shinobu Komukai (Japan SDF)
96 kg - Kenzo Kato (Japan SDF)
120 kg - no entry
Women's freestyle
48 kg - Yuri Funatsu (Toyo University)
51 kg - Nanae Suzuki (Waseda University)
55 kg - Chikako Matsukawa (Nihon University)
59 kg - Seiko Yamamoto (Japan Beverage)
63 kg - Ayako Shoda (Japan Beverage)
67 kg - Mimi Sugawara (Tokyo MPD)
72 kg - Kyoko Hamaguchi (Japan Beverage)
HAMAGUCHI NAMED HEAD COACH FOR WOMEN'S SQUAD IN ALMATY
TOKYO (February 10) - The Japan Wrestling Federation has announced that
Heigo ・Animal・Hamaguchi will serve as the head coach for the Japanese women's
team at the Asian championships in Kazakhstan in April.
Hamaguchi, Kyoko's father and personal coach, will replace Shigeo Kinase
as head coach. Kinase will join Ryo Kanahama as one of the team's coaches.
JAPAN SENDS 21 TO KLIPPAN LADIES OPEN
TOKYO (February 17) - Japan is sending 21 high school and junior high
school students to Sweden for the Klippan Ladies Open, March 3-5. The cadets
competition will be held March 3-4 while the combined junior-senior division
will wrestle March 4-5 as the second leg of women痴 wrestling for the FILA痴
Golden Grand Prix.
Last year, Aichi high school student Mio Nishimaki won the senior women痴
crown at 59 kg while Japan also got three titles in the cadet competition.