To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）
KASUMIGAURA WINS HS CROWN 4th YEAR IN A ROW
SAKURA, Chiba Prefecture (August 3) - Kasumigaura high school of
Ibaraki Prefecture rolled over Tamana Kogyo of Kumamoto Prefecture 5-2
to win the national high school wrestling championship team title. Wrestling
at Sakura Municipal Gymnasium, Kasumigaura won the championship for the
fourth year in a row and 18th time overall.
It was also the third straight year and 14th time overall that Kasumigaura
has won the spring invitational and national championship title in the
same year. The Ibaraki school also defeated Tamana Kogyo for the invitational
crown in March.In the semifinals, Kasumigaura defeated local favorite Sekiyado
5-2 while Tamana Kogyo edged 4-3 past Ginan Kogyo of Gifu Prefecture. Kasumigaura’s
Teppei Monya was selected the outstanding wrestler of the team competition.
ARAKIDA REPEATS AS HWT HIGH SCHOOL CHAMP
SAKURA, Chiba Prefecture (August 5) - Nobuyoshi Arakida rolled to his
second straight national high school freestyle title at 120 kg and is one
jewel away from repeating as heavyweight triple crown winner. Arakida of
Kosei Gakuin high school in Aomori pinned Fumihiro Watanabe (Kasumigaura,
Ibaraki) in the 120-kg final at Sakura Municipal Gymnasium to add to the
championship he won at the national invitational in March. A repeat win
at the national sports festival in October will give the Aomori star all
three major high school freestyle titles for a second year in a row.
Meanwhile, defending champion Teppei Monya of Kasumigaura lost by fall
in the 60-kg final to Yoshizumi yano of the Nihon Bunri University affiliate
high school in Oita in his bid for a second straight championship. Doubling
up on titles won at the invitational in March were former junior high school
star Hiroyuki Oda of Kosei Gakuin at 55 kg and Yuki Eitata (74, Amino=Kyoto).
Nagata also won the national cadet title in April.
For team tourney champion Kasumigaura, Kazuki Morikawa (66) and Naoto
Komura (84) took individual crowns. The remaining two titles went to Daishi
Inomata of Miyazaki Kogyo at 55 kg and Kenji Fujimoto of Morioka Kogyo
in Iwate.
2007 BANGKOK UNIVERSIADE NOT TO INCLUDE WRESTLING
IZMIR, Turkey (August 9) - Wrestling will not be on the program for
the 2007 Universiade in Bangkok, the International University Sports Federation
(FISU) decided at its meeting in Izmir.
Organizers of the student games can elect to include some sports on its
program along with the Universiade’s mainstay events which include athletics
and swimming. The student wrestling world championships, held every other
year and organized in Poland last year, will be held in the Mongolian capital
of Ulan Bator next June 14-19.
NAGATOMO ELEVATED TO 2ND IN ASIA JR WRESTLING
TOKYO (August 10) - The international wrestling federation (FILA) has
informed the Japan Wrestling Federation that Daisuke Nagatomo has been
elevated to second place in the Asian junior wrestling championships. Nagatomo,
who finished third in the greco-roman competition at 96 kg in June, will
now receive the silver medal after Iranian winner G. M. Ghorbani tested
positive in doping control.
EITA BAGS 4TH TITLE OF THE YEAR AT HS GRECO-ROMAN
TOKYO (August 18-19) - Yuki Eitata of Kyoto’s Amino high school bagged
his fourth individual title of the year with a triumph at 74 kg at the
high school greco-roman national championships. Eitata has earlier won
titles in the national high school invitational in March, the national
high school freestyle championships earlier this month and the junior national
crown in April.
At 84 kg, Naoto Komuro of Kasumigaura high school in Ibaraki added
a third title to his triumphs at the spring invitational and national freestyle
championships. Also, defending champion Tomohiro Inoue of Hyogo’s Ikuei
high school avenged a loss to Kazuki Morikawa in last year’s national
sports festival to repeat as 66-kg winner. Morikawa of Kasumigaura won
the high school freestyle title at the beginning of the month.
Other champions included Yuta Uchimura of Kashima Jitsugyo in Saga
(50), Toshiyuki Kitaoka from Hino high school in Shiga (55), Taishi Okamoto
of Shizuoka’s Hiryu (60), Yutaro Hirata of Kasaoka Kogyo of Okayama (96)
and Kenji Tanaka of Kanoya Chuo in Kagoshima (120).
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP IN NAGOYA NEXT MAY
TOKYO (August 25) - Nagoya appears ready to be approved as host site
of the 2006 World Cup of women’s wrestling, according to the schedule
listed on FILA’s Internet website.
With the women’s World Cup already staged in Tokyo in 2003 and 2004,
the Aichi prefectural wrestling association indicated that it wanted to
host the event in which the top women’s teams compete in a dual meet format.
The Japan Wrestling Federation has made an application for the event with
FILA. With no other candidates apparently bidding for the World Cup, it
is expected that Nagoya will be approved when FILA leaders meet in Budapest
on September 25.
The World Cup in Nagoya will be a chance for supporters of women’s
wrestling to showcase locally the strength of the Chukyo Women’s University
wrestling team. It will be the first time that Nagoya will host an international
wrestling competition.
SHIMADA WINS 2ND WOMEN’S COLLEGIATE CROWN
TOKYO (August 29) - Kayoko Shimada of Nihon University pinned rival
Kei Yamana of Chukyo Women’s University in the 59-kg final to win her
second title at the women’s wrestling collegiate national championships.
Shimada won the championship crown last year at 63 kg.
Champions at the other weights were:
48 kg - Yuri Funatsu, Toyo University
51 kg - Yuna Sakae, CWU
55 kg - Chikako Matsukawa, NU
63 kg - Erika Matsukawa, NU
67 kg - Mami Shinkai, CWU
72 kg - Kie Tanaka, CWU
SATO, MATSUMOTO REPEAT AT COLLEGIATE OPEN
TOKYO (August 30) - Sophomores Tsukasa Sato of Waseda and Shinya Matsumoto
of Nihon University won repeat titles at the collegiate open freestyle
wrestling championships. Sato edged Muneyuki Suzuki of Ritsumeikan 2-1
in the 66-kg final at Komazawa Gymnasium while Matsumoto defeated NU teammate
Yoichi Yamagata 2-0 in the 84-kg final.
In addition to Matsumoto, NU also received championship performances from
Noriyuki Takatsuka at 60 kg and Maximo Blanco at 74.
Blanco is the second wrestler from Venezuela to win a Japanese collegiate
championship after Luis Varela, who also wrestled for NU from 1992 to 1995.
Other champions included Takashi Adachi of Yamanashi Gakuin at 55,
Yoshitsugu Yoneyama of Nippon Sports Science University at 96 and Senshu’s
Katsuya Kitamura at 120. Two-time defending champion at 60 kg Takaomi Kojima
of NSSU went up to 66 kg in his bid for a third open title, but fell to
Suzuki in the quarterfinals.
NSSU’s Kenichi Yumoto (60), headed to the world championships in Budapest
at the end of September and Universiade national team member Takao Isokawa
(84) of Takushoku both forfeited in the semifinals with injuries.
TSURUMAKI WINS 2ND TITLE, OW AT COLLEGIATE OPEN GRECO
TOKYO (August 31) - Reigning national champion at 74 kg Tsukasa Tsurumaki
rolled to the 84-kg title at the collegiate open greco-roman hampionships
and was named the outstanding wrestler of the entire three-day meet.
Tsurumaki, who won the open title at 74 kg last year, defeated Tatsuya
Ito of Waseda 2-0 in the 84-kg final to triumph for the second year in
a row. Tsurumaki of Kokushikan was also a bronze medalist at the Universiade
in
Izmir, Turkey earlier in the month.
Noritomo Eto also won for a second straight year at 66 kg while teammates
Teppei Okamoto (74) and Ryuji Yamaguchi (96) gave Takushoku three championships
overall. Kohei Hasegawa won at 55 kg to give Aoyama Gakuin its first collegiate
open winner in five years and third overall. Shutaro Matsumoto (60) and
Tetsuya Shato (120) won for NSSU.