JAPAN GRECO ENTRIES DENIED PODIUM AT WORLD STUDENT C’SHIPS

KUORTANE, Finland (October 5-6) – Japanese entries in the greco-roman events at the world university wrestling championships recorded only a pair of wins and were denied a place on the medals podium for the first time since 2004.

Masaki Aoki of Aoyama Gakuin University and Takahiro Inoue of the Nippon Sports Sciences University won their opening bouts at 60kg and 66kg, but could advance no further as both were placed eighth in their respective weight categories.

Tomoaki Nakano, another entry from NSSU, dropped a pair of bouts, but finished fifth overall at 55kg since there were only eight entries in the weight category.

Japan finished in 11th place in the greco-roman team rankings with 16 points.  Russia won with 50 points from one champion and a pair of silver and bronze medalists each.  Turkey was second with 46 points, while Iran with three champions and 44 points was third.

Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:

Greco-roman

55kg – NAKANO, Tomoaki (5th, 8 entries)

R1 – lost to Dmitri Brychak (BLR), 0-2 (0-1, 0-3)

F3 – lost to Ivan Blatsev (RUS), 0-2 (0-3, 0-2)

60kg – AOKI, Masaki (8th, 16 entries)

R1 – df. Michael Markman (ISR) by TF, 2-0 (7-0, 7-0)

R2 – lost to Jamel Johnson (USA), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)

66kg – INOUE, Takahiro (8th, 16 entries)

R1 – df. Milen Dimitrov (BUL), 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)

R2 – lost to Mevlut Arik (TUR), 0-2 (1-1, 0-2)

c1 – lost to Marat Shokarov (RUS), 0-2 (0-2, 0-6)

74kg – NAKAMURA, Takaharu (15th, 15 entries)

R1 – lost to Laszlo Szabo (HUN), 0-2 (04, 02)

c1 – lost to Damian Hartmann (GER), 0-2 (0-1, 0-3)

84kg – OKUDA, Kesiuke (9th, 11 entries)

R1 – lost to Viktor Sasunovski (BLR) by fall, 1P (F0-4)

96kg – OSAKA, Akira (12th, 12 entries)

R1 – lost to Mohammed Reza Akbari (IRI), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)

120kg – MAEKAWA, Shori (9th, 10 entries)

R1 – lost to Toby Erickson (USA), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)

==End Item