TOKYO (May 6) - Japan's freestyle and greco-roman entries at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens kicked off their 100-day pre-Olympic training camp at the national training center in Tokyo. Tomiaki Fukuda, president of the Japan Wrestling Federation, exhorted the wrestlers to train hard and 杜ake the first three minutes of each bout (in the Olympics) decisive.・
Five Japanese wrestlers in freestyle and four in greco-roman have qualified for the Athens Games in August. Hidekazu Yokoyama (FS 84) and Katsuhiko Nagata (GR 74) did not attend the ceremony. Yokoyama had work commitments in Akita while Nagata was competing in the Asian championships.
Imitating the 500-day training camp before the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the JWF held a 100-day training camp before last year's world championships. As a result, Kazuhiko Ikematsu (FS 66) won Japan's first world-level medal since 1995 and four Japanese qualified for the Olympics at the world championships.
Except for a training tour of Europe in June and a training camp in the highlands of Nagano, the Olympic team members will live and practice at the national training center until the Games. The 500-day training camp before the Seoul Olympics began in May 1987 with Olympic candidates, coaches and trainers staying at the Olympic Youth Memorial Center in Yoyogi.
With two or three athletes at each weight class taking part in the training camp, rivalries intensified and resulted in a strong showing for Japan in Seoul. Takashi Kobayashi (FS 48) and Mitsuru Sato (FS 52) won gold medals (so far, Japan's last gold medals in Olympic wrestling) while Akira Ota (FS 90) and Atsushi Miyahara (GR 52) won silver medals.
JAPANESE RESULTS FROM ASIA GR C'HIPS
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (May 7-9) - Results of Japanese entries in the Asian
greco-roman championships:
55 kg - MURAKAMI, Fumikiyo (dnp, 8 entries)
(Murakami did not feel well and did not compete)
60 kg - ITO, Hikaru (8th, 10 entries)
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Akipov (UZB) by TF
R3 - lost to Ravinder (IND), 6-5
66 kg - IZENA, Masaaki (3rd, 6 entries)
R1 - lost to Kim In-Sub (KOR), 5-3
R2 - df. Bhupender (IND) by TF (IND)
R3 - bye
F3 - df. Rezani (IRI), 4-1
74 kg - NAGATA, Katsuhiko (4th, 9 entries)
R1 - df. Sanjy (IND), 4-0
R2 - lost to Choi D-K (KOR), 3-0
R3 - bye
C1 - df. Babajanzade (IRI), 3-1
C2 - df. Kobonov, D. (KGZ), 3-0
SF - lost to Dokturashvili (UZB)
F3 - lost to Choi D-K (KOR)
84 kg - OTA Mitsuhiro (5th, ? entries)
R1 - df. Jagdir (IND) by default
R2 - lost to Mikaimei (IRI), 7-5
R3 - lost to Jabrailov (KAZ) by TF
96 kg - OTA, Noriaki (5th, 6 entries)
R1 - lost to Mambetov (KAZ) by TF
R2 - bye
R3 - lost to Han Tae-Yong (KOR), 6-0
120 kg - SAWADA, Naoki (6th, 7 entries)
R1 - lost to Sajad, B. (IRI) by TF
R2 - lost to Tsurtsumia (KAZ) by TF
R3 - lost to Park Woo (KOR), 3-1
Individual champions
55 - Asset Imanbayev (KAZ); 60 - Jinyun Jungi (KOR); 66 - Kim In-Sub (KOR);
74 - Alexander Dokturashvili (UZB); 84 - Abdulla Jabrailov (KAZ); 96 -
Gennadiy Chaidze (KGZ); Georgia Tsurtsumia (KAZ)
NSSU WINS EAST JAPAN COLLEGIATE CROWN
TOKYO (May 14) - Nippon Sports Science University won the final three bouts to defeat Nihon University 4-3 and claim its first East Japan collegiate wrestling championship title in five years. NSSU trailed NU 1-3 heading into the final three bouts of the championship final at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo, but got big wins from Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (84), Hidekazu Moriyama (96) and Yoshitsugu Yoneyama (120).
The title was the 23rd overall for NSSU. Yamanashi Gakuin edged Kokushikan 4-3 for third place. Keio, meanwhile, defeated Rikkyo 5-2 for the second division crown. Both schools, however, lost in promotion-relegation matches and failed to
advance to the top division.
JAPANESE OLYMPIC ENTRIES TO TOUR EUROPE IN JUNE
TOKYO (May 21) - The Japan Wrestling Federation announced that Japan's entries in the Athens Olympics will make a warm-up tour of Europe in June. The freestyle team will compete in Macedonia on June 5-6 and then travel to Leipzig for the German freestyle grand prix the following week. The greco-roman team will practice in Germany for two weeks prior to the German grand prix meet in Dortmund on June 18-20 and the travel to Szombathely for the Hungarian grand prix.
KOKUSHIKAN HEAD COACH TO TAKE SABBATICAL IN AUSTRALIA
TOKYO (May 26) - Kokushikan University head coach Toshio Asakura left for a year's sabbatical in Australia at a university in Sydney. Asakura, who plans to study coaching and athlete development techniques during his year in Australia, said 的 would like to master coaching techniques and English (while I知 there).・
Asakura, who hails from Kagoshima, was a member of the Japanese team (GR 52) that was forced to sit out the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He switched to freestyle in 1981 and became world champion at 52 kg -- so far, Japan痴 last title in the freestyle world championships. During Asakura's absence at Kokushikan, junior greco-roman national team coach Hiroshi Kado will oversee the training of the wrestling team.
