To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

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

GIRLS WIN 7, BOYS SILVER, 2 BRONZE AT ASIA CADET C’SHIPS



TASHKENT (July 25-27) – Japanese girls won seven of 10 categories and the boys added a silver and two bronze medals at the Asia cadet wrestling championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The girls’ champions included Sakura Ueno (43kg; Amino HS, Kyoto), Yaki Meio (49kg; Amino) and Yurika Ito (60kg; Amino), who all repeated as continental champions. Other winners were Miori Suzuki (46kg; Abe Gakuin, Tokyo), Chihiro Hamada (52kg; Nikodai Komaba, Tokyo), Akane Kinoshita (56kg; Saitama Sakae) and Keijun Utada (65kg; Abe Gakuin). Chihiro Hashimoto (70kg; Abe Gakuin) also took a bronze medal for the girls.

Despite the seven titles, Japan did not have entries at 38kg and 40kg and had to settle for third place among the seven countries entered in the female competition behind India and Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, in the boys’ competition, Tomoaki Nakano (50kg; Yaezu Chuo, Shizuoka) took a silver medal in greco-roman while four other Japanese entries lost in their bronze medal matches and had to settle fifth place.

In the boys’ freestyle, Shingo Arimoto (46kg; Suita, Osaka) and Kotaro Muraki (100kg; Kuri Higashi, Shiga) won bronze medals, while three other entries earned fifth-place diplomas.

TOKYO’S GOLD KIDS WIN 9 AT SCHOOLBOYS-SCHOOLGIRLS NAT’LS


TOKYO (July 25-27) – Tokyo’s Gold Kids wrestling club crowned nine champions while Taro Sawa of the Suita wrestling club in Osaka won a championship for the seventh straight year at the national schoolboys-schoolgirls championships.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the championships, a total 1,563 wrestlers from 177 clubs throughout Japan took part in the competition at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.

Competition was held in 107 different categories based on age, weight and gender.

For the Gold Kids, coached by former world champion Masako (Iijima) Narikuni, Kazuya Numazaki won the 32kg crown for fifth graders for his fourth straight title and Narikuni’s eldest son, Taishi, won his fourth overall title in the 34kg category for fifth graders.

Meanwhile, Sawa won the 42kg class for sixth graders as the Suita club, along with the Mito Juniors club, crowned seven champions each.