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）
Profiles of the members of the Japanese national team
TOKYO (Aug. 28) - Profiles
of the members of the Japanese national team
for the freestyle world championships in
Tehran, September 5-7:
55 kg - TANABE, Chikara (Tokyo Metropolitan
Police Department)
Born: 1975 April
20, Hokkaido. Age: 27. Ht: 160
cm. Education:
Iwamisawa high school (Hokkaido) -- Nippon
Sport Science University.
Two-time high school national
champion. Won first senior national
title
in 1996 at 54 kg and has been Japan's top
lightweight since, winning a berth
in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Slowed
by injuries in 2001, Tanabe lost in
the national team trials and later in the
national championships.
Olympic Games - 2000,
10th. World championships - 1998, 11th;
1999,
12th. Asian Games - 1998, 7th.
Asian championships - 1997, 6th; 1999, 9th.
----
60 kg - OTA, Ryosuke (Tokyo MPD)
Born: 1978 April 12, Shizuoka.
Age: 24. Ht: 163 cm. Education:
Tsuchiura Nichidai high school (Ibaraki)
-- Nihon University.
Two-time junior high school
national champion. Won four high school
national titles in 1996. Won the junior national
champion in 1998, but
career stalled because of injuries. Got his
career moving again in 2001
after taking second place in the national
team trials.
Jr. world championships
- 1996, 4th (58kg); 1998, 11th (60 kg).
Jr.
Asian championships - 1998, 6th (60 kg)
----
66 kg - IKEMATSU, Kazuhiko (assistant coach,
NSSU)
Born: 1979 December 26,
Fukuoka. Age: 22. Ht: 171 cm.
Education: Mii
high school (Fukuoka) -- NSSU.
Best showing in high school
was as runner-up in the national sports
festival. Ikematsu made progress after
entering NSSU, winning the national
collegiate title in 2000 and finishing third
in national senior
championships. Won the national team trials
for a berth on Japanese world
team. Finished second at 63 kg in the 2001
national championships in
December, but won the national team trials
again in June.
World championships -
2001, 23rd (63 kg)
----
74 kg - OBATA, Kunihiko (student, Yamanashi
Gakuin University)
Born: 1980 October 17,
Yamaguchi. Age: 21. Ht: 177 cm.
Education:
Kasumigaura high school (Ibaraki) -- YGU.
Won four national high
school titles in 1997, won all five in 1998.
Finished third in the junior world championships
in 1999 as a freshman at
YGU and won his first senior national title.
National champion again in 2000
and 2001.
World championships -
2001, 29th (76 kg). Asian championships
- 2001,
3rd (76 kg); 2000, 6th (76 kg).
Jr. world championships
- 1999, 3rd. Jr. Asian championships,
1999, 2nd
----
84 kg - SEMBA, Katsuyoshi (student, Ritsumeikan
University)
Born: 1980 April 30, Ehime.
Age: 22. Ht: 178 cm. Education:
Ritsumeikan Uji high school (Kyoto) -- Ritsumeikan
University.
Highest national finish
in high school was second in the national
championships. Has won three straight
championships in western Japan
collegiate championships from 1999 to 2001.
Finished second in the national
collegiate open championships and the national
collegiate championships in
2001. Was also second in the national
senior championships in December.
Aiming to become the first national champion
from a university in western
Japan since 1984 after Hirokazu Ishimori
of Osaka Physical Education
College.
University world championships
- 2002, 5th.
----
96 kg - NAKAO, Yoshihiro (SP Network)
Born: 1972 June 25, Tokyo.
Age: 30. Ht: 180 cm. Education:
Tokyo
Kogyo high school -- Toyo University.
Did not win a major title
in high school and repeatedly just missed
the
championships as a student at Toyo.
After joining the Japanese Self-Defense
Forces and its physical training school,
Nakao on the national sports
festival championship at 82 kg in 1996.
Won his first national championship
title last December at the age of 29 years,
5 months, 28 days -- the fourth
oldest first-time champion in Japanese wrestling
history.
-----
120 kg - TANAKA Akihito (student, Senshu
University)
Born: 1983 March 9, Fukuoka
Prefecture. Age: 19. Ht: 182 cm. Education:
Mii high school (Fukuoka) -- Senshu University.
Won the greco-roman high
school national championship in 1999 and
in
2000 won the freestyle and greco-roman national
titles as well as the
national sports festival. As a freshman at
Senshu last year, Tanaka finished
second in both the collegiate open and the
national collegiate
championships. but pinned national team member
Hisashi Fujita in the final
of the senior national championships.
World univeristy championships
- 2002, 5th.
