MORISHITA EARNS BRONZE AT FREESTYLE JR WORLD C’SHIPS

PATTAYA, Thailand (September 8-9) – Fumitaka Morishita notched four wins against a loss in the semifinals to earn a bronze medal at 55kg in men's freestyle on the final day of the junior wrestling world championships.

Morishita, a bronze medalist at last year's junior World Cup meet, opened with a 2-0 win over Georgi Vangelov (BUL), a runner-up at the 2011 junior world championships and strung together three wins before falling to 2010 junior world runner-up Lasha Talakhadze (GEO) in the semifinals.

The Nippon Sports Sciences University student, however, rebounded with a win over European junior silver medalist Artak Hovhannisyan (ARM) in the bronze medal bout to claim Japan's first medal in junior worlds freestyle in two years.

Outside of Morishita, the rest of the Japanese team struggled.  Only Akihiro Kameyama of Yamanashi Gakuin University was able to post more than a single win and finished eighth at 84kg, while Koki Yamamoto of Nihon University recorded a fall at 96kg for his only win to climb into 10th place.

Men's freestyle

50kg – KAWABATA, Yuya (16th, 21 entries)

R1 – lost to Gevorg Arzumanyan (ARM), 0-2 (0-6, 3-7)

55kg – MORISHITA, Fumitaka (Bronze, 30 entries)

R1 – df. Georgi Vangelov (BUL), 2-0 (7-0, 2-0)

R2 – df. David Berdis (SVK), 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)

R3 – df. Ismail Musukaev (RUS), 2-0 (3-3, 5-1)

SF – lost to Lasha Talakhadze (GEO), 1-2 (3-5, 7-4, 3-5)

F3 – df. Artak Hovhannisyan (ARM), 2-0 (5-4, 5-0)

60kg – KAMOI, Masakazu (16th, 35 entries)

R1 – df. Jozsef Molnar (HUN), 2-1 (0-1, 1-0, 4-0)

R2 – lost to Lasha Bitarashvili (GEO), 0-2 (1-4, 0-7)

66kg – HOSAKA, Ken (16th, 31 entries)

R1 – df. Mohammed Boudraa (ALG), 2-0 (1-0, 4-0)

R2 – lost to Magomed Kurbanaliev (RUS), 0-2 (0-6, 0-1)

c1 – lost to Andrei Karpach (BLR) by fall, 2P (3-4, 2-4)

74kg – SHIMADA, Daisuke (24th, 36 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – lost to Saken Aitzhanov (KAZ), 1-2 (1-0, 0-4, 2-2)

84kg – KAMEYAMA, Akihiro (8th, 27 entries)

R1 – df. Tepakam Methee (THA), 2-0 (4-0, 2-1)

R2 – df. Hossam Mohamed (EGY), 2-0 (7-6, 3-2)

R3 – lost to Vahe Tamrazyan (ARM), 1-2 (0-3, 3-3, 2-3)

96kg – YAMAMOTO, Koki (10th, 22 entries)

R1 – df. Roland Berde (HUN) by fall, 2P (1-0, 4-0)

R2 – lost to Khuderbulga Dorjkhand (MGL), 1-2 (1-3, 3-1, 0-2)

120kg – MURAKAMI, Keiji (17th, 17 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – lost to Ali Magomedabirov (AZE), 0-2 (0-1, 0-7)

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