By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
June wrestling news
C. ICHO APPEARS SET FOR WORLD C’SHIPS
TOKYO (June 9) - World champion Chiharu Icho apparently will have the chance
to defend her 48-kg title this fall at the world championships in Baku,
the Japan Wrestling Federation revealed.
The JWF had been worried that Icho would not be allowed to compete at the
worlds after failing to make weight for the Asian championships in May.
FILA, wrestling’s world governing body, had issued a directive earlier
this year saying that a country’s entrants to the world championships would
be limited to the same number entered in the continental meets.
Icho had been troubled with back pains prior to the Asian championships,
but made the trip to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan only to miss making weight. Japan
had no alternate for Icho at 48 kg and questions soon arose about whether
she would be allowed to wrestle in Baku.
On June 8, however, JWF president Tomiaki Fukuda said he had been informed
by FILA president Raphy Martinetti that Icho would be able to wrestle at
the September 17-23 world meet in Baku. Martinetti reportedly said that
other countries were facing similar situations and noted that Japan’s doctor
at the Asian championships had submitted a medical report explaining Icho’s
reasons for missing the meet.
JWF PRES. NAMED 2008 OLYMPIC DELEGATION CHIEF
TOKYO (June 27) - Tomiaki Fukuda, president of the Japan Wrestling Federation,
will head up the Japanese delegation at the 2008 Olympic Games as chef
de mission.
Fukuda will be the first representative from Japanese wrestling to hold
the position as the top official of the Japanese delegation at the August
8-24 Games in Beijing. It is also the first time since the Japanese Olympic
Committee (JOC) separated from the Japan Amateur Sports Association (JASA)
in 1991 that the JOC has selected someone other than its president as chef
de mission.
JOC president Tsunekazu Takeda, however, reportedly will be focusing on
promoting Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Olympics while in Beijing. Still, Fukuda’s
selection as chef de mission is also being seen as recognition of his Olympic-related
work. Fukuda is a senior executive board member of the JOC and is chairman
of the JOC’s Sports Committee.
At past Olympics, Fukuda was head coach for the Japanese freestyle team
at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, served as a member of the JOC headquarters
in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000), and was general manager of the Japanese
delegation in Athens.
JAPANESE MEN KICK OFF ‘100-DAY TRAINING CAMP’
TOKYO (June 18) - Japan’s freestyle and greco-roman squads kicked off their
“100-day training camp” as formal preparations for the world championships
in September got under way.
In addition to special sessions for select members of the team at the Japan
Institute of Sports Science (JISS), the two men’s squads will also have
training camps in the mountains of Nagano and in Europe. The world championships
will be held September 17-23 in Baku, Azerbaijan. These championships will
also serve as the first round of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
At the center of the training schedule, Japan’s top five medal hopefuls
in freestyle and greco-roman will stay at JISS for full days of practices
and training as well as video study sessions.
In addition to the training in Japan, veterans Makoto Sasamoto and Shingo
Matsumoto will travel to Georgia and Bulgaria in July for six weeks of
work with some of the top wrestlers in those greco-roman powerhouses. They
will be joined in Bulgaria at the end of July for more training and the
Nikola Petrov tournament in Sofia.
The freestyle team, meanwhile, head to Russia for training and the Beloglazov
international in Kaliningrad and then join up with the greco-roman squad
in Sofia, where they will compete in the Dan Kolov
tourney.
ABE WINS 3RD NAT’L MIDDLE SCHOOL TITLE
MITO, Ibaraki (June 23-24) - Local favorite Chinami Abe(photo) did not give up a point in three matches and cruised to her third straight title at the middle school wrestling national championships.
Abe of Mito’s No. 2 middle school, who won at 37 kg the previous two years,
defeated Nachi Masuda of Kaji in Osaka in the final at 41 kg for the championship
as was named the outstanding wrestler of the tourney. Abe became the seventh
wrestler, and fourth female, to win three straight junior high championships.
The meet featured a total of 362 boys and 88 girls from 43 of Japan’s 47
prefectures, making it the largest ever in the 33 years of the championships.
Individual champions:
Boys
38 kg - Shinobu Ota, Kuraishi (Aomori)
42 kg - Yusuke Sugiyama, Mishima Minami (Shizuoka)
47 kg - Masakazu Kamoi, Shiun (Kagawa)
53 kg - Yuki Takahashi, Seiwa (Mie)
59 kg - Daisuke Shimada, Toyama (Aomori)
66 kg - Yuta Sakamoto, Tsuchiura No. 6 (Ibaraki)
73 kg - Masaki Kimura, Chiyoda (Gunma)
85 kg - Kenta Nagai, Yamao (Chiba)
120 kg - Yuya Matsuno, Wajima (Gifu)
Girls
37 kg - Yu Miyahara, Takasago (Toyama)
41 kg - Chinami Abe, Mito No. 2 (Ibaraki)
46 kg - Yuki Irie, Yokodai (Fukuoka)
52 kg - Chiho Hamada, Tachibana (Kanagawa)
58 kg - Hikari Sugawara, Isshi (Mie)
64 kg - Eri Iida, Kimagase (Chiba)
70 kg - Chiaki Tateno, Chikurai (Ibaraki)
JWF ANNOUNCES TEAM FOR ASIAN JR C’SHIPS
TOKYO (June 18) - The Japan Wrestling Federation formally its team for
the Asian junior wrestling championships in Manila, July 6-8. The team
is largely comprised of the runners-up at the junior national championships
in April, but will include national champion Masaharu Kaji of Aoyama Gakuin
University as the Japanese entry at 50 kg in greco-roman.
The Asian junior championships were held twice in the 1980s and then after
an interruption was restarted in 1998. Shigeki Ozawa won the freestyle
title at 60 kg in 2005 and Nobuyoshi Arakida followed with the 120-kg crown
last year. In greco-roman, Ryo Minemura won at 55 kg a year ago.
The first Asian junior women’s meet was held in 2000, but the second was
not organized until 2004 when Japanese wrestlers won seven of eight categories.
Japan also took seven gold medals in 2005, but was held to three last year.
The men’s greco-roman competition is scheduled for July 6, with the women
on July 7, concluding with men’s freestyle on July 8.
Japan’s individual entries are:
Greco-roman
50 kg - Masaharu Kaji, Aoyama Gakuin Univ.
55 kg - Tsubasa Ogata, Nippon Sports Science Univ.
60 kg - Takumi Yokoyama, NSSU
66 kg - Shingo Shibata, NSSU
74 kg - Hiroto Uesako, Senshu Univ.
84 kg - Ryo Ito, Japan Self-Defense Forces
96 kg - Masaki Chikada , Ritsumeikan Univ.
120 kg - Ryuta Kono, AGU
Freestyle
50 kg - Yo Morita, Mii high school (Fukuoka)
55 kg - Yasuhiro Morita, NSSU
60 kg - Teppei Monya, Nihon Univ.
66 kg - Shota Shitochi, NSSU
74 kg - Manabu Kamata, Chukyo Gakuin Univ.
84 kg - Hiroshi Honda, Chuo Univ.
96 kg - Yutaro Baba, Senshu Univ.
120 kg - Tsutomu Takabayashi, Nihon Bunri Univ.
Women
44 kg - Noriko Sakai, Chukyo Women’s Univ.
48 kg - Nodoka Nishi, Waseda Univ.
51 kg - Reika Oyama, Shigakukan high school (Aichi)
55 kg - Mika Kunieda, Doshisha Univ.
59 kg - Mizuka Kajita, CWU
63 kg - Marina Takahashi, Waseda Univ.
67 kg - Chiaki Kajimoto, Kansai Univ.
72 kg - Anna Uno, Yokkaichi Shigo high school (Mie)
WINNERS IN EAST JAPAN COLLEGIATE FROSH-SOPH MEET
TOKYO (June 13-15) - Winners in the East Japan Collegiate Freshman-Sophomore
Springtime Tournament at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo:
Freestyle
55 kg - Yohei Fujimoto, Waseda University
60 kg - Hiroyuki Oda, Kokushikan University
66 kg - Shota Shitochi, Nippon Sports Science University
74 kg - Hayato Konishi, Daito Bunka University
84 kg - Atsushi Matsumoto, NSSU
96 kg - Kenji Fujimoto, Takushoku University
120 kg - Masahito Aizawa, Nihon University
Greco-roman
55 kg - Tatsuya Tomioka, NSSU
60 kg - Shota Watanabe, NSSU
66 kg - Tomohiro Inoue, NSSU
74 kg - Shigeyasu Sawada, Toyo University
84 kg - Kazuo Okumura, Takushoku
96 kg - Mizuki Watanabe, Yamanashi Gakuin University
120 kg - Ryuta Kono, Aoyama Gakuin University
ABE WINS 3RD NAT’L MIDDLE SCHOOL TITLE
Abe of Mito’s No. 2 middle school, who won at 37 kg the previous two years,
defeated Nachi Masuda of Kaji in Osaka in the final at 41 kg for the championship
as was named the outstanding wrestler of the tourney. Abe became the seventh
wrestler, and fourth female, to win three straight junior high championships.