By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
April wrestling news
Y. TANAKA RETURNS TO FORM TO JR NAT’L TITLE
YOKOHAMA (April 26) - Yukitaro Tanaka’s 18-month title drought ended at
the JOC Cup junior-cadet national championships as the former Kyoto Hachiman
high school star won the freestyle 60kg crown over a field of former high
school national champions. Tanaka, now a first-year student at Waseda University,
unleashed a low-level attack reminiscent of America’s two-time Olympic
champion John Smith to defeat Yoshihiro Arishima of Nippon Sports Sciences
University in the final at Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium.
The triumph was Tanaka’s first since winning three national high school
titles in 2007 along with the national cadet championships crown. Tanaka
had been plagued with a laundry list of niggling injuries during his final
year at Kyoto Hachiman. “I was worried and nervous that my wrestling career
was finished, but several people helped me keep my focus on the future
with their kind advice,” Tanaka said after the finals.
Meanwhile, Tanaka’s Waseda teammate Tomotsugu Ishida won at 66kg in freestyle and was named the outstanding wrestler of the junior competition. Tatsuya Tomitsuka (NSSU) repeated as champion at 66kg in greco-roman.
MIMURA, HORIUCHI WIN AT JR-CADET C’SHIPS FOR 6TH YEAR IN A ROW
YOKOHAMA (April 25) - Junior world champs Fuyuko Mimura and Yu Horiuchi both won titles at the JOC Cup junior-cadet national championships as each stood atop the medals podium for a sixth year in a row.
Mimura, in her first year at Nihon University, won her fourth straight
title in the junior division at 48kg, while NU teammate Horiuchi won for
a second year at 51kg and was named the outstanding wrestler in the women’s
division. Horiuchi, however, aggravated a shoulder injury sustained in
February and will sit out the Asian senior championships in Thailand.
Meanwhile, Yurika Ito, Japan’s entry at 59kg in Thailand, won her first junior title. Ito, from Kyoto’s Amino high school like Mimura and Horiuchi, wrestles for International Pacific Rim University which set up a women’s wrestling program under former greco-roman national team coach Hiroshi Kado only three years ago.
HORIUCHI TO SIT OUT ASIAN C’SHIPS WITH SHOULDER INJURY
TOKYO (April 29) - Yu Horiuchi will miss the Asian championships in Thailand (May 2-7) because of shoulder injury that has been slow to heal and which was aggravated in the junior national championships on May 25.
Horiuchi, the 2008 junior world champ, dislocated her right shoulder in
February and was troubled throughout the junior nationals with the injury.
The decision to pull Horiuchi out of the Asian championships came too late
for the Japanese team to get a replacement ready at 51kg.
FUKUDA ELECTED TO VP POSITION IN JOC
TOKYO (April 10) - Japan Wrestling Federation president Tomiaki Fukuda was named a vice president of the Japanese Olympic Committee when the JOC decided on its executive committee for 2009-2010.
Fukuda had served as chairman of the JOC’s performance enhancement committee
and will be replaced by Haruki Uemura, president of the All-Japan Judo
Federation. Fukuda is the second president of the JWF to be named a vice
president of the JOC after Shozo Sasahara.
INABA SILVER, KAYAMORI BRONZE IN UZBEK GRAND PRIX MEET
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (April 15-18) - Reigning world student champion Yasuhiro Inaba took a silver medal and Hiroki Kayamori a bronze medal at the Independence Cup meet in the Golden Grand Prix series.
Inaba, who won the Dan Kolov International in February, posted three wins
at 55kg to advance to the final, but fell to former European cadet champion
Ashot Terteryan of Russia 2-1. Kayamori, meanwhile, rebounded from a second-round
loss to last year’s European junior champion Ender Coskun of Turkey to
claim a bronze medal with a pair of wins in repechage at 74kg.
Kohei Fujimoro, however, did not have a chance at the consolation brackets when his second-round opponent, a former European junior silver medalist Mustafa Kuyucu of Turkey, lost in the semifinals at 66kg.
YOKOHAMA (April 26) - Yukitaro Tanaka’s 18-month title drought ended at
the JOC Cup junior-cadet national championships as the former Kyoto Hachiman
high school star won the freestyle 60kg crown over a field of former high
school national champions. Tanaka, now a first-year student at Waseda University,
unleashed a low-level attack reminiscent of America’s two-time Olympic
champion John Smith to defeat Yoshihiro Arishima of Nippon Sports Sciences
University in the final at Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium.