By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
NAGASHIMA WINS MNC CROWN, QUALIFIES FOR 1ST WORLD TEAM
TOKYO (June 20) - Three-time national champion Kazuyuki Nagashima won
his first national invitational title at the Meiji Nyugyo Cup meet to secure
his first-ever berth on the Japanese national team for the world championships.
Wrestling in the men’s freestyle 74kg final, Nagashima fashioned a 2-1,
5-0 win over Takayuki Suzuki at Yoyogi National Gymnasium to punch his
ticket for the world meet in Herning, Denmark in September.
With a pair of national champions sitting on the sidelines, Shinya Matsumoto
won his second trip to a world championships at 84kg, while Takao Isokawa
booked his first trip to the world meet at 96kg. Veteran national team
members Kunihiko Obata and Shingo Matsumoto, winners in December’s national
championships at 84kg and 96kg, respectively, did not enter the invitational,
choosing instead to focus on their collegiate coaching duties.
Also in freestyle, Nobuyoshi Arakida added the invitational title to his national championship crown at 120kg and will be making his first trip to the world meet.
In greco-roman, Hirokazu Shinjo avenged a December loss to Atsushi Nakamura
in the 120kg final for his third straight MNC crown and then edged Nakamura
again in a world team wrestle-off. It will be Shinjo’s second trip to the
world meet. Tsutomu Fujimura (66kg) and Norikatsu Saikawa (84kg) earned
their first trips to the world championships with their first MNC titles.
At 96kg, Katsuya Kitamura won his first invitational title in greco-roman and will make his first trip to the world championships in the upper-body only style of wrestling. In 2006, Kitamura won a berth on the Japanese national team at 120kg in freestyle for the world meet in Guangzhou, China.
Results of semifinal, final and, where applicable, world team wrestle-off bouts:
Men’s freestyle
74kg
F1 - Kazuyuki Nagashima df. Takayuki Suzuki, 2-0 (2-1, 5-0)
SF - Nagashima df. Ryuta Takahashi, 2-1 (2-0=2:02, 0-1=2:02, 1-0)
SF - Suzuki df. Yoshiaki Narabe, 2-0 (3-0, 2-1)
(Nagashima wins 1st MNC crown, qualifies for 1st world team)
84kg
F1 - Shinya Matsumoto df. Atsushi Matsumoto, 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)
SF - A. Matsumoto df. Satoru Yamamoto, 2-0 (2-0, 2x-2=last)
SF - S. Matsumoto df. Naoki Monma, 2-0 (2-0, TF5-0=0:40)
(S. Matsumoto wins 2nd MNC title, qualifies for 2nd world team)
96kg
F1 - Takao Isokawa df. Kenzo Sakamoto, 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)
SF - Isokawa df. Takayuki Miyaji, 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)
SF - Sakamoto df. Kenji Fujimoto, 2-1 (3-1, 0-1=2:05, 1-0=2:05)
(Isokawa wins 2nd straight MNC crown, qualifies for 1st world team)
120kg
F1 - Nobuyoshi Arakida df. Tsutomu Takabayashi by fall, 2P=0:34 (2-0, F4-0)
SF - Arakida df. Takahiro Shimonaka, 2-0 (1-0=2:07, 5-0)
SF - Takabayashi df. Masato Aisawa, 2-1 (1-0=2:04, 0-3=2:07, TF7-0=1:26)
(Arakida wins 2nd straight MNC crown, qualifies for 1st world team)
Greco-Roman
66kg
F1 - Tsutomu Fujimura df. Yuji Okamoto, 2-0 (TF6-0=0:56, TF6-0=1:01)
SF - Fujimura df. Takahiro Umeno, 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)
SF - Okamoto df. Hiroyuki Shimizu, 2-0 (2-0, 1-0)
(Fujimura wins 1st MNC crown, qualifies for 1st world team)
84kg
F1 - Norikatsu Saikawa df. Ryo Ito, 2-0 (2-0, TF8-0=1:29)
SF - Saikawa df. Hirokazu Oka by fall, 2P=0:18 (3-5, F4-0)
SF - Ito df. Masayuki Amano, 2-1 (2-5, 3-0, 1-0)
(Saikawa wins 1st MNC title, qualifies for 1st world team)
96kg
F1 - Katsuya Kitamura df. Yasuhiro Mori, 2-0 (3-0, 1-0)
SF - Kitamura df. Takashi Matsunaga, 2-0 (TF2-0=1:45, 3-0)
SF - Mori df. Wataru Kurokawa by fall, 2P=0:19 (0-1, F3-0)
(Kitamura wins 2nd MNC title, qualifies for 2nd world team)
120kg
F1 - Hirokazu Shinjo df. Atsushi Nakamura, 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)
SF - Nakamura df. Naoki Sawada, 2-0 (4-0, 3-2)
SF - Shinjo df. Shinichi Hirakawa, 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
WO - Shinjo df. Nakamura, 2-0 (1-0, 0-1, 2-0)
(Shinjo wins 3rd straight MNC crown, qualifies for 2nd world team
TOKYO (June 20) - Three-time national champion Kazuyuki Nagashima won
his first national invitational title at the Meiji Nyugyo Cup meet to secure
his first-ever berth on the Japanese national team for the world championships.
Wrestling in the men’s freestyle 74kg final, Nagashima fashioned a 2-1,
5-0 win over Takayuki Suzuki at Yoyogi National Gymnasium to punch his
ticket for the world meet in Herning, Denmark in September.