To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

By William May
（Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public Information Committee
：wmay52@hotmail.com）

SAITO WINS BRONZE MEDAL ON 1ST DAY OF ASIAN C'SHIPS

By Sachiko Hotaka


　　　ALMATY (April 6) - Tokyo police officer Masashi Saito (right) raked in a bronze medal for Japan with a pair of falls on the opening day of the Asian Wrestling Championships. Saito's lone loss of the day came in the freestyle semifinals at 55 kg 0-2 to Iran's Mohammad Rezaei. "I was hoping to win a medal of a shinier color, but I ran out of gas. I need to practice more,・Saito said.

　　　Japan's other two entries on the day -- Takafumi Kojima (66 kg) and Yutaka Suzuki (84 kg) -- both fell in theirbronze medal matches and had to settle for fifth place. Japan did not enter a wrestler at 120 kg.

　　　The championships continue through Sunday.

Results of matches involving Japanese entries:

55 kg - SAITO, Masashi (3rd, 11 entries)
1R - bye
2R - df. Qin Yi (CHN) by fall, 1P=1:53
SF - lost to Mohammad Rezaei (IRI), 0-2 (0-3, 1-3)
F3 - df. Yasser al-Qubaisi (UAE) by fall, 1P=1:01
----
66 kg - KOJIMA, Takafumi (5th, 11 entries)
1R - lost to Batzorig Buyanjav (MGL), 0-2 (0-6, 1-3)
r1 - df. Kim In-Chol (PRK), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
F3 - lost to Arslan Khutaliev (UZB), 1-2 (1-0, 4-6, 0-1)
----
84 kg - SUZUKI, Yutaka (5th, 10 entries)
1R - bye
2R - df. No Jae-Hyun (KOR), 2-1 (3-0, 0-2, 1x-1)
SF - lost to Zaurbek Sokhiev (UZB), 0-2 (0-2, 0-3)
F3 - lost to Majid Khodaei (IRI) by fall, 2P=1:16

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