To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
:wmay52@hotmail.com)
[August wrestling news]
TAKADA FETED TO MARK ENTRY TO FILA HALL OF FAME
ATHENS (August 28) - Yuji Takada, widely considered one of the top
technicians in modern wrestling history, was feted at a gala affair to
mark the former Olympic champion's entrance into the FILA international
wrestling hall of fame. Takada, who won four world titles and the freestyle
52-kg title at the 1976 Montreal Games, was presented with a medal to mark
his admission to the hall of fame.
The celebration, held at a hotel in Athens on the occasion of the 2004
Olympic Games, saw five former Olympic and world champions, and a host
of other contributors to the development of wrestling in attendance. Newly
crowned Olympic champions Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho were also presented
with special medals to mark their achievement as gold medalists in the
debut of women's wrestling at the Olympic Games.
"From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all of the people
who made my entry to the hall of fame possible. I am elated at this prestigious
honor,・Takada told the party's guests. Takada, who now serves as executive
director of the Japan Wrestling Federation, added that he would continue
to work hard for the development of wrestling in Japan. He hailed Japan's
four medalists in women's wrestling and the five place-winners in the men's
events, saying "When you look at the state of wrestling in the world
today, (these wrestlers) did well to uphold the tradition of Japanese wrestling.・
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KASUMIGAURA 3-PEAT FOR TEAM TITLE AT HS NATIONALS
KURASHIKI, Okayama (August 3) - Kasumigaura high school of Ibaraki
Prefecture downed Aomori's Kosei Gakuin in the final 5-2 to win its third
straight team title at the high school national championship meet. The
team championship in the summer wrestling classic was Kasumigaura's 17th
overall. Third place went to Ritsumeikan Uji high school of Kyoto and Kanoya
Chuo of Kagoshima.
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FUKUDOME WINS 3RD TITLE OF THE SEASON
KASUMIGAURA, Okayama Prefecture (August 6) - Kazutoshi Fukudome won
his third national title of the season when he took the 50-kg crown at
the high school wrestling national championships. Fukudome of Kasumigaura
high school also won titles at the high
school invitational in March and the junior national championships in April.
Aoi Otsuki, meanwhile, added a third jewel to his championship crown at
74 kg following the March invitational and the cadet nationals in April.
Otsuki of Nihon Bunri University's affiliate high school was also named
the outstanding wrestler of the championships.
Other invitational champions who doubled up in Kurashiki were Shigeki
Ozawa (60 kg, Kasumigaura), Shu Miyahara (66 kg, Akita Shogyo), Toshio
Kobayashi (84 kg, Nagano Ueda Nishi), Ryota Ogura (96 kg, Kasumigaura)
and Shinren Arakida (120 kg, Kosei Gakuin). Ozawa, the winner at 58 kg
last year, won his second title at the national championship meet. Miyahara,
meanwhile, is the son of Akira Miyahara, a two-time world silver medalist
and a member of the 1980 Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Games over
the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
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H. YAMAMOTO WINS AT BELOGLAZOV INT'S
TOKYO (August 2) - Reigning national champion Hidenori Yamamoto won
the 60-kg title at the Beloglazov international meet in Kaliningrad, Russia
on July 23-25. Meanwhile, Kiyotaka Kodaira took seventh place at 96 kg
with a win against two losses, while Koji Obara fell to a pair of losses
at 66 kg.