To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
Kyodo World Services, senior sports writer:wmay52@hotmail.com)
SASAMOTO SHOWN QUICK EXIT FROM GR WORLD C'SHIPS
MOSCOW (September 22) - Makoto Sasamoto's bid to improve on his
world ranking ended before it even got going
as the Japanese ace was stunned with a loss
by technical superiority at the 2002 greco-roman
wrestling world championships in Moscow on
September 22.Sasamoto, who finished in seventh
place at the world meet last year, lost 10-0
to Asledin Khudoyberdiev of Uzbekistan in
the first round of the championship bracket
at 60 kg and was forced to settle for an
11th place ranking in the field of 37 wrestlers.
Sasamoto, Japan's only entry to advance
beyond the preliminary groups in the meet,
never got going against the 36-year-old veteran
from Tashkent and was hit with a passivity
call 1:13 into the match at Universal Sport
Hall CSKA in Moscow. Khudoyberdiev, who was
a silver medalist in the 1999 Asian championships,
converted with a trap-arm gut wrench and
went to a lift-and-throw for a quick six
points. A penalty point and another lift-and-drop
by the Uzbek brought an end the match at
2:23.
Khudoyberdiev, however, lost 6-4 in the
quarterfinals to Cuba's Roberto Monzon, the
eventual bronze medal winner. In other action,
2000 Olympic champion at 63 kg Varteres Samourgashev
of Russia used a pair of back-arching throws
to prevail against two-time Olympic gold
medalist Filiberto Ascuy of Cuba 7-2 in a
semifinal match at 74 kg.
Ascuy won the gold medal at the 1996
Atlanta Olympics at 74 kg and then went down
to 69 kg for another title at the Sydney
Games two years ago. In the final at 74 kg,
Samourgashev earned Russia's second gold
medal of the championships while exacting
a measure of revenge by backing Badri Khasaia
of Georgia out-of-bounds in overtime for
the third and final point in a 3-0 victory.
Samourgashev lost to Khasaia in the final
of the European championships in April.
In the bronze medal match, Ascuy defeated
Volodymir Shatskikh of Ukraine 5-1 with a
high back-arching throw in the final minute.
Russia's other two hopes on the final day
of the championships -- Rustem Mambetov and
Yuri Patrikeev -- however, failed to reach
the tournament finals.
Mambetov lost to two-time Pan America
champion Monzon 5-0 in a first round match
at 55 kg and Patrikeyev lost to Mihaly Deak-Bardos
of Hungary in the semifinals at 120 kg in
a reversal of their meeting for this year's
European championships crown.
Patrikeyev rebounded for the bronze medal
with a 9-4 win over Xenofon Koutsioubas of
Greece. Deak-Bardos, meanwhile, fell to American
entry Dremiel Byers 3-0 in the championship
final, settling for a world silver medal
for the second straight year while Byers
stretched the American winning streak at
wrestling's heaviest weight to three gold
medals in a row.
At 55 kg, two-time Olympic champion Armen
Nazarian of Bulgaria picked his first world
championship title with a 3-0 victory over
Wlodzimierz Zawadzki of Poland. Monzon won
the bronze medal for the second year in a
row with a 3-0 win over Ukraine's Oleksandr
Khwosch.
At 96 kg, Turkey's Mekhmet Ozal outlasted
Egypt's Karam Mohamed Gaber Ibragim in a
wide-open affair 15-11 to add a gold medal
to the bronze he won a year ago. Ali Mollov
of Bulgaria, who upset defending world champion
Alexander Bezruchkin of Russia in the preliminaries,
defeated 2001 silver medalist Ernesto Pena
of Cuba 4-0 for the bronze medal and his
best-ever international showing.