To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
January wrestling news
VIEWERSHIP SCORES 8.9% FOR NAT’L C’SHIPS
TOKYO (January 29) - Nihon Television’s (NTV) broadcast of the 2006 national
wrestling championships hit a high of 8.9% during spot checks on January
28, the final day of the all-Japan meet.
The afternoon broadcast of the final day’s bouts reached its high for the
first-round victory of professional fighter Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto. Ratings
dipped slightly to 8.6% for Yamamoto’s second-round loss to Athens Olympic
bronze medalist Kenji Inoue and overall averaged 6.5% for the final day
of the championships.
The showdown between two of the world’s top female wrestlers, Saori Yoshida
and Hitomi Sakamoto, scored a 7.7% rating.
Average viewership for the championships was lower on the first two days
with 3.5% on Friday, January 26, and 2.7% for Saturday’s matches which
were aired from 0:50 to 2:20 the following morning.
Meanwhile, for the homepage of the Japan Wrestling Federation at total
of 7,245 hits were recorded on the first day of competition, 11,155 the
second day and 48,569 the final day. On January 29, the day after the competition,
wrestling fans were still checking on the results of the championships
with 14,066 hits.
The national championships, normally held in December, were delayed for
a month because of the Asian Games staged in Doha earlier in the month.
FEMALE WORLD CHAMPS TO BE GIVEN NOD FOR ’08 OLYMPIC BERTH
TOKYO (January 28) - The Japan Wrestling Federation announced that female
winners at the 2007 world championships in Azerbaijan will be given the
unofficial nod for a berth on Japan’s 2008 Beijing Olympics squad.
Silver and bronze medalists at the September 17-23 world meet in Baku,
however, will not automatically be given a Japanese Olympic team berth. JWF
officials will look at the contents of the matches wrestled by the silver
and bronze medalists and then make its decision about whether to unofficially
name the wrestler to the Olympic squad.
Japanese wrestlers won gold medals at three of the four Olympic weight
categories at the 2005 world championships in Guangzhou, China. Chiharu
Icho (48 kg), Saori Yoshida (55 kg) and Kaori Icho (63 kg) took gold medals
in Guangzhou. Only Kyoko Hamaguchi had to settle for a silver medal at
72 kg.
“We want to decide on a steady representative (for the Olympic team) and
let them establish their goals as quickly as possible,” JWF president Tomiaki
Fukuda said.
The Japanese female team for this year’s world championships will be decided
at the Japan Queens Cup meet April 14.
If winners at the national championships repeat at the JQC meet, they will
be named the world team member. If the JQC winner is different from the
national champ, a special wrestle-off will be held for the world team berth.
The JWF earlier decided that medal winners in men’s freestyle and greco-roman
at the 2007 world championships will be given the unofficial nod for the
2008 Olympic team.
TOP 8 AT NATIONALS GET CHANCE FOR MEIJI QUALIFIERS
TOKYO (January 25) - The Japan Wrestling Federation announced that the
top eight finishers at the national championships will qualify for the
Meiji Nyugyo Cup invitational meet in June. Hideaki Tomiyama, head of the
JWF national team committee, told head coaches prior to the national meet
that the JWF was expanding its list of Meiji Nyugyo Cup qualifiers from
the national meet from four to eight.
“We wanted to give more wrestlers a chance,” Tomiyama explained of the
meet that also serves as the national team qualifier for the world championships.
A qualifying tourney in March for the Meiji Nyugyo Cup will bring the number
of entries at each weight in the invitational to 16.
245 JOURNALISTS GIVEN PRESS CREDENTIALS FOR ALL-JAPAN
TOKYO (January 25) - An unprecedented 245 journalists from 94 organizations
were given press credentials to cover the all-Japan wrestling national
championships.
The number did not include the journalists and technicians with Nihon Television
(NTV), which aired the three-day championships at Komazawa Gymnasium in
Tokyo. The number easily surpassed the 165 journalists from 65 organizations
that asked for press credentials to cover the 2004 Japan Queens Cup which
served as the final women’s team selection meet prior to the Athens Olympics.
Because of the limited area at Komazawa Gymnasium, the Japan Wresting Federation
asked television stations and university newspapers to reduce the number
of writers and photographers they planned to send to the meet. A large
number of journalists were seeking interviews with Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto,
who returned to the mats for the first time in over seven years in the
middle of a successful mixed martial arts career.
JWF AFFILIATES NAME WRESTLERS OF THE YEAR
TOKYO (January 18) - Affiliate organizations of the Japan Wrestling Federation
named their wrestlers of the year for 2006.
Award presentations were made January 28 on the final day of the 2006 all-Japan
meet.
Winners by organization were:
Shakaijin - Seshito Shimizu, Clean-up wrestling club
University - Noriyuki Takatsuka, Nihon University
High School - Yuki Eita, Amino high school (Kyoto)
Junior High School - Kohei Kitamura, Kyoto
Shimada, Aomori
Schoolboy, Schoolgirl - Kazuma Ito, Osaka
Abe, Akita
Women - Saori Yoshida
Masters - Katsuyoshi Yonemori
19 COLLEGIANS TO DAVE SCHULTZ MEMORIAL IN U.S.
TOKYO (January 16) - The Japan Wrestling Federation will send 19 collegiate
national champions and place-winners to the Dave Schultz memorial international
wrestling tourney February 8-10 in Colorado Springs.
Wrestlers selected for the tourney are:
Freestyle
55 kg - Kazuhide Tomita, Daito Bunka
60 kg - Kenichi Yumoto, Nippon Sports Science University;
66 kg - Tsukasa Sato, Waseda; Futoshi Yokoyama, NSSU; Hisashi Aoyama, Toyo
74 kg - Goki Kudo, Nihon; Aoi Otsuka, Waseda
84 kg - Takao Isokawa, Takushoku; Naoki Monma, NSSU
96 kg - Shinji Azuma, Ritsumeikan
120 kg - Nobuyoshi Arakida, Senshu
Greco-roman
55 kg - Kohei Hasegawa, Aoyama Gakuin; Ryo Minemura, Kanagawa
60 kg - Hideo Kitaoka, NSSU; Kenta Iwasaki, Senshu graduate
66 kg - Shinpei Fujiyama, NSSU; Fumiya Itakura, AGU
74 kg - Masanori Koeda, NSSU
96 kg - Masaaki Aso, Takushoku
120 kg - Iori Yasuda, Waseda
NSSU RESUMES ACTIVITIES AFTER PUNISHMENT
YOKOHAMA (January 1) - The Nippon Sports Science University wrestling team
resumed training after a month-long ban on club activities imposed by the
East Japan Collegiate Wrestling Association in November.
The ban was imposed after a first-year member of the wrestling club was
caught in the dormitory of the women’s gymnastics team where he took some
items of underwear. With the ban on activities lifted, Kenichi Yumoto and
other members of the NSSU team entered in the all-Japan national championships
resumed practice.