To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

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

February wrestling news

NO MEDALS FOR COLLEGIANS AT DAVE SCHULTZ MEMORIAL






COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (February 8-10) - Japanese collegiate stars notched a handful of wins at the Dave Schultz Memorial wrestling tournament, but could only manage to return home with three fifth-place finishes.
Senshu University’s Yasuhiro Inaba scored a win over Olympic silver medalist Stephen Abas in a freestyle quarterfinal bout at 55 kg, but the all-Japan heir apparent was then saddled with back-to-back losses in the semifinals and wrestle-backs for fifth place.

Also in freestyle, Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Takushoku University took a win by injury default over 2006 world champion Bill Zadick at 66 kg, but also missed out on the medals. Yonemitsu’s Takushoku teammate Yuji Okamoto took a fifth place at 60 kg in the greco-roman competition.

Individual results of Japanese entries:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Greco-roman
55 kg - Ryo Minemura, Kanagawa University
R1 - df. Joshua Habeck(USA), 2-0 (2-1, 5-1)
R2 - lost to Yemar Ramazanov (KAZ), 0-2 (0-4, 1-2)
r1 - lost to Jorge Cardozo (VEN), 0-2 (2-4, 0-2)

60 kg - Yuji Okamoto, Takushoku University (5th place)
R1 - bye
R2 - df. Willie Madison (USA), 2-0 (2-2, 1-1)
R3 - df. Noah Blankenship (USA), 2-0 (3-0, 2-2)
SF - lost to Nurbakyt Tengizbayev (KAZ) by TF, 0-2 (0-6, 0-6)
rs - lost to Marco Lara (USA), 0-2 (0-3, 1-1)

60 kg - Kazuma Kuramoto, Yamanashi Gakuin University
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Glenn Garrison (USA), 1-2 (2-1, 1-1, 0-6)
r1 - lost to Luis Liendo (VEN), 1-2 (1-5, 6-3, 0-2)

66 kg - Kohei Fujimoto, Takushoku
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Mark Rial (USA), 1-2 (1x-1, 1-4, 0-4)
r1 - lost to Belbit Nugumanov (KAZ), 0-2 (0-7, 0-2)

74 - Keita Ito, Takushoku
R1 - df. Aaron Drain (USA), 2-1 (0-7, 3-3, 7-1)
R2 - lost to T.C. Dantzler (USA) by TF, 0-2 (0-6, 0-7)
r1 - lost to Nathaniel Augustson (USA), 1-2 (4-0, 0-6, 2-2)

74 -Yuichi Tanaka, Nippon Sports Sciences University
R1 - lost to Kenneth Cook (USA), 0-2 (1-5, 2-2)
r1 - bye
r2 - df. Jake Fisher (USA) by injury default
r3 - df. Cheny Haight (USA), 2-1 (1-1, 1-1, 3-0)
r4 - lost to Odelis Herrero (CUB), 0-2 (0-5, 1-5)

84 kg - Yasuhiro Naguchi, NSSU
R1 - lost to Chas Betts (USA), 0-2 (0-7, 1-2)
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Vyacheslav Zutarev (KAZ) by fall, 1P=0:37

96 kg - Katsuya Kitamura, Senshu
R1 - lost to Justin Ruiz (USA) by fall, 1P=1:28 (0-6)
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Margulan Assembekov (KAZ), 0-2 (0-2, 0-3)

120 kg - Ryuta Kono, Aoyama Gakuin University
R1 - lost to Timothy Taylor (USA), 0-2 (1-2, 0-5)
r1 - lost to Gennadiy Lyashenko (KAZ), 0-2 (0-4, 0-3)

Freestyle
55 kg - Yasuhiro Inaba, Senshu (5th)
R1 - df. Mariusz Wlakowiak (POL), 2-0 (4-2, 3-3)
R2 - df. Obe Blanc (USA), 1-2 (3-4, 6-0, 6-0)
R3 - df. Stephen Abas (USA), 2-0 (1-1, 1-0)
SF - lost to Rizvan Gadzhiev (BLR), 0-2 (0-3, 0-1)
r1 - lost to Nick Simmons (USA), 0-2 (2-4, 1-2)

55 kg - Yasuhiro Morita, NSSU
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Joe Dubuque (USA), 0-2 (0-1, 1-2)
r1 - bye
r2 - df. Cesar Roberty (VEN), 2-0 (1-1, 3-0)
r3 - lost to Nick Simmons (USA), 0-2 (0-6, 0-4)

55 kg - Yohei Fujimoto, Waseda University
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Naranbataar Bayaraa (MGL), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)
r1 - bye
r2 - df. Christoph Ewald (GER), 2-0 (3-0, 7-0)
r3 - lost to Stephen Abas (USA), 0-2 (1-6, 0-1)

60 kg - Kaoru Anzawa, Waseda
R1 - df. Adam Blok (POL), 2-1 (3-0, 0-4, 2-1)
R2 - lost to Shawn Bunch (USA), 0-2 (0-6, 5-8)
r1 - df. Teppei Monya (JPN), 2-0 (6-0, 3-2)
r2 - df. Alexander Kropf (GER), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
r3 - lost to Samet Iger (GER) by fall, 1P=1:23

60 kg - Teppei Monya, Nihon University
R1 - lost to Jason Kutz (USA), 0-2 (2-5, 0-6)
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Kaoru Anzawa (JPN), 0-2 (0-6, 2-3)

66 kg - Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, Takushoku (5th)
R1 - bye
R2 - df. Bill Zadick (USA) by injury default, 1P (2-3)
SF - lost to Trent Paulson (USA), 1-2 (4-3, 0-6, 0-6)
r1 - lost to Batzorig Bunyanjav (MGL), 1-2 (0-1, 1-0, 0-1)

74 kg - Aoi Otsuki, Waseda
R1 - lost to Tyrone Lewis (USA) by fall, 1P=1:08
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Edison Hurtado (COL), 0-2 (0-4, 1-2)

84 - Naoki Monma, NSSU
R1 - lost to Jake Herbert (USA), 0-2 (3-3, 1-4)
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Benjamin Wissel (USA), 0-2 (0-1, 2-3)

96 kg - Kenji Fujimoto, Takushoku
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Michael Irving (USA), 0-2 (0-1, 1-2)
r1 - bye
r2 - lost to Kevin Schwabe (GER), 0-2 (0-3, 1-5)

120 kg - Atsushi Nakamura, Takushoku
R1 - bye
R2 - lost to Markus Hamann (GER), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)
r1 - lost to Kordus Arkadiusz (POL), 0-2 (0-4, 0-6)

5 WRESTLERS IN JOC ELITE ACADEMY


TOKYO (February 1) - The Japanese Olympic Committee kicked off its JOC Elite Academy with a meeting at the National Training Center to explain its plans to Japan’s future Olympic hopefuls.

The Elite Academy will seek to identify young Japanese athletes with Olympic potential and develop them through an “elite training system.” The athletes will stay at the NTC, attend a nearby school and train under the watchful eye of sports and nutrition specialists. The elite hopefuls, including five wrestlers -- one boy and four girls -- will formally enter the program on April 1, the start of the academic year in Japan.
The wrestlers will be coached by Toshiro Yui, who has coached in Indonesia and Thailand. Yui will be assisted by five-time world champion Shoko Yoshimura.

Japan Wrestling Federation president Tomiaki Fukuda, who will oversee the project, told the young athletes “We hope you will devote yourself to your sport throughout the year and practice with dreams of becoming a world champion.”

GR SQUAD TRAINS IN HUNGARY


TOKYO (February 17) - A squad of Japanese greco-roman wrestlers departed for Hungary for an international training camp with some of the world’s top greco-roman wrestlers from countries such as Russia, Romania, Korea, Sweden and the Czech Republic.Leading the Japanese squad are world silver medalist Makoto Sasamoto (60 kg) and Olympic qualifier Kenzo Kato (96 kg).

The squad will train in Hungary until February 27, when half of the team will return to Japan to prepare for the Asian championships in mid-March and the other half will go to Szombathely, Hungary to observe the World Cup competition and take part in the Hungarian Cup golden grand prix tournament.

JAPAN TO SEND ’07 CHAMPS TO STUDENT WORLD C’SHIPS


TOKYO (February 23) - The All-Japan Collegiate Wrestling Association said it would not hold any special team trials for the this year’s world university championships, sending instead a squad comprised of many 2007 student champions.　Mitsuru Sato, head of the association’s national team committee, pointed out that between March and May there are already a number of important competitions in Japan without adding a world university team trial.

Sato added that he wanted to form the student team with the winners of last fall’s collegiate national championships, and where the winner is not available, select a candidate based on the wrestler’s performance in the collegiate championships and other meets.

World silver medalist Makoto Sasamoto won the greco-roman crown at the world university meet in Tokyo in 2000 and national team member Tomohiro Matsunaga took the 55-kg freestyle crown in Edmonton, Canada in 2002.
T
he Japanese men, however, have not won a world student title since, bringing home, instead, three bronze medals from the 2006 meet in Ulan Bator.

AISHIN A.W. TO FIELD FEMALE WRESTLING TEAM


ANJO, Aichi Prefecture (February 1) - Automotive parts manufacturer Aishin A.W. has decided to field a female wrestling team, recruiting two wrestlers from nearby Chukyo Women’s University -- all-Japan runners-up Yuri Kai (51 kg) and Mami Shinkai (67 kg).

Aishin, which produces car parts such automatic transmissions and car navigation systems, has long been a supporter of Japan’s female wrestling team and was one of the backers of the 2006 women’s World Cup meet in Nagoya.

Aishin also fields a basketball team in the Women’s Japan Basketball League (WJBL).