WARSAW (August 14) ? Four-time world champion Seiko Nagashima return to
competition with four convincing wins and the 59kg title at the Poland
Open Warsaw Cup women’s wrestling competition. The wrestler formerly known
as Seiko Yamamoto was largely unchallenged in her return to competition
after more than three years away from the mats.She capped her winning run in Warsaw with a 4-1, 5-0 win over Beijing Olympian Marianna Sastin (HUN), who was one of Nagashima’s sparring partners shortly after she announced her decision to end her retirement. The victory marked a new beginning for Nagashima, who said she is coming out of retirement in an effort to make the Japanese Olympic team for the 2012 London Games.
Nagashima’s first bid to wrestle in the Olympics in 2004 came up short to Saori Yoshida. Hampered by a handful of niggling injuries, Nagashima announced her retirement from wrestling in June 2006. In the three years hence, Nagashima worked as a television commentator, got married and had a baby boy.
While working at last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, Nagashima was bitten by the competitive bug and decided to get her wrestling shoes out of storage. She has been training at home and made a short trip to Europe in the winter for training camps in Austria and Hungary. Nagashima told reporters that her next step will likely be the All-Japan Women’s Open in October, which will also serve as a qualification tourney for the All-Japan national championships in December.
