TEHRAN (February 6-7) – Former world bronze medalist Noriyuki TAKATSUKA defeated London Olympian RI Jong Myong (PRK) to take a bronze medal at 61kg at the Takhti Cup freestyle wrestling tourney.
Takatsuka, who won the 60kg bronze medal at the 2006 world championships in Guangzhou, was the only entry from Japan to snare a medal while Daichi TAKATANI finished in fifth place at 65kg.
Takatsu opened with wins over a pair of Kazakh entries, including 2012 junior world bronze medalist Meirzhan ASHIROV (KAZ), but in the semifinals fell to Vasyl FEDORISHIN (UKR), his opponent in the bronze medal final in Guangzhou.
Takatsu, however, rebounded, 8-7, in the bronze medal final with RI Jong-Myong (PRK), who had finished in fifth place in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
At 57kg, Golden Grand Prix Final winner Fumitaka MORISHITA posted three wins in the early rounds, but lost to London 2012 bronze medalist YANG Kyong-Il (PRK) and had to settle for seventh place overall.
Men’s freestyle
57kg – MORISHITA, Fumitaka (7th, 33 entries)
R1 – df. Danyal HOJJATI (IRI), 8-3
R2 – df. Andrei DUKOV (ROU), 6-2
R3 – df. Vahid JALALIBAHAR (IRI) by TF, 16-6
R4 – lost to YANG Kyong Il (PRK) by TF, 2-12
57kg – TAKAHASHI, Yuki (12th, 33 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Altynbek ALYMBAEV (KGZ), 7-4
R3 – lost to JIN Jong Hak (PRK), 4-12
c1 – lost to Younes SARMASTIDZAJI (IRI), 13-14
61kg – TAKATSUKA, Noriyuki (3rd, 24 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Damir TOLEUKENOV (KAZ), 8-7
R3 – df. Meirzhan ASHIROV (KAZ), 10-6
SF – lost to Vasyl FEDORISHIN (UKR), 3-8
F3 – df. RI Jong-Myong (PRK), 5-3
61kg – KAWASE, Katsuhiro (11th, 24 entries)
R1 – df. Alberto MENDIETA (NCA) by TF, 11-0
R2 – lost to Narmandakh LKHAMGARMAA (MGL) by TF, 3-14
65kg – ISHIDA, Tomotsugu (16th, 20 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Farzad KOLIVAND (IRI), 0-2
65kg – TAKATANI, Daichi (5th, 20 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Meysam NASIRI (IRI) by TF, 0-10
c1 – df. Hamed RASHIDI (IRI), 4-2
F3 – lost to Dauren ZHUMAGAZIYEV (KAZ), 2-4
74kg – TAKATANI, Sosuke (16th, 23 entries)
R1 – lost to Essadollah AKBARI (IRI), 5-5C
96kg – YAMAGUCHI, Takeshi (11th, 18 entries)
R1 – lost to Abbas TAHAN (IRI), 4-5
c1 – lost to Roman BAKIROV (AZE) by fall, 1P (7-6)
125kg – ARAKIDA, Nobuyoshi (17th, 19 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Aleksander KHOTSIANIVSKI (UKR) by fall, 1P (0-4)
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