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)
IWAMA WINS AT YARYGIN; SAITO, SHODA ADD SILVER
KRASNOYARSK, Russia (January 31-February 2) - Rena Iwama overcame
a first-round loss and came back through
repechage to win the 59-kg crown at the Yarygin
Memorial international wrestling tournament.
Norie Saito and Ayako Shoda, meanwhile, added
silver medals for Japan in the nine-nation
women’s tourney and Japanese high school
student Makiko Sakamoto took a third place.
Iwama of the Replay wrestling club could
not score in her opening match with Gratseva
of Russia, but won her next two bouts in
pool competition to qualify for the repechage
group. Iwama, the 2000 world silver medalist
at 62 kg, stormed through the
repechage bracket and then rolled over Perepelkina
of Russia in the semifinals.
In the championship finals, Iwama came out
aggressively to take the early lead against
Smolyakova of Russia and then held off a
late charge by her opponent for her second
triumph in a major international competition
following her victory in last year’s World
Cup of women’s wrestling.
At 67 kg, Saito of the Japan Beverages
club also lost in her preliminary pool, but
advanced to the championship final on criteria.
In the final, however, Saito gave up four
points on takedowns and could not catch up
against Svetlana Yaroshevich of Russia.
In the second half of the women’s competition,
former world champion Shoda upended reigning
59-kg world champion Alena Kartashova of
Russia in the preliminaries at 63 kg. The
Toyo University student, however, fell to
Kartashova when the two
met again in the championship final.
At 48 kg, Chukyo Women’s University
high school student Sakamoto breezed through
her pool competition before losing to Inga
Karamchakova of Russia in the semifinals.
Sakamoto, younger sister of FILA’s female
wrestler of the year in 2000 Hitomi Sakamoto,
however, came back for third place with an
8-5 win over American Patricia Miranda.
JWF NAMES SQUADS FOR 2ND TOUR OF THE SEASON
TOKYO (February 28) - The Japan Wrestling Federation has named
its squads for a second round of tours for
competitions in Europe this season. The Japanese
women’s team departs for Sweden on March
5 to compete in the Klippan Ladies Open on
March 8-9. The team will then travel to Poland
for a training camp with a local team and
then to compete in the Poland Open tournament
in Lodz on March 14-16.
World champion Saori Yoshida and a few
other wrestlers were left off the women’s
squad for a number of reasons including injuries.
Meanwhile, a women’s select trio, led by
five-time world champion Shoko Yoshimura,
will travel Guilin, China for an international
competition on March 13-14.
The men’s greco-roman team, fresh from
a successful trip to the United States for
the Concord Cup and Dave Schultz Memorial
in February, leave for Greece on March 18.
In Greece, they will train with a local team
and then compete in the Acropolis international
meet March 28-30.
The men’s freestyle team departs for
Belarus on March 25 to compete in the Alexandre
Medved tourney in Minsk on March 29-30. They
then travel to Sofia, Bulgaris for a joint
training camp and the Dan Kolov meet on April
5-6.
The squad line-ups are:
Women (Sweden, Poland)
Team manager - Akira Suzuki
Coach - Ryo Kanahama
48 kg - Miyu Yamamoto (Poland Open only)
51 kg - Chiharu Icho
55 kg - Seiko Yamamoto
63 kg - Kaori Icho
67 kg - Norie Saito
72 kg - Kyoko Hamaguchi
Women (China)
Team manager - Shigeo Kinatsu
48 kg - Shoko Yoshimura
55 kg - Chikako Matsukawa
72 kg - Fumiko Murashima
Greco-roman
Team manager - Hiromichi Ito
55 kg - Masatoshi Toyoda
60 kg - Makoto Sasamoto
66 kg - Masaki Imuro
74 kg - Katsuhiko Nagata
84 kg - Shingo Matsumoto
Freestyle
Team manager - Hideaki Tomiyama
Coach - Takahiro Wada
55 kg - Chikara Tanabe
55 kg - Tomohiro Matsunaga
60 kg - Ryosuke Ota
66 kg - Kazuyuki Miyata
66 kg - Kazuhiko Ikematsu
74 kg - Kunihiko Obata