DABROWA, Poland (August 2-3) – Former Youth Olympic Games champion Yuki TAKAHASHI turned in his best performance since 2010 at the Wadislaw Ziolkowski Memorial, grabbing a silver medal at 57kg to secure a berth on the Japanese team for the world championships in September.
Meanwhile, 2006 Asian Games silver medalist Takafumi KOJIMA also bagged a bronze at 66kg in Dabrowa to punch his ticket for Incheon, Korea and the Asian Games there, also in September.
Takahashi, a bronze medalist at Yasar Dogu in February, edged 2013 European silver medalist Vladislav ANDREEV (BLR), 3-2, in the semifinals, but fell, 4-6, to 2012 European cadet champion Ibragim ILYASOV (RUS) in the 57kg final.
Kojima, back on the mats for the first time since taking a bronze medal at the 2012 Asian championships, lost to Medved Prizes winner Azamat NURIKOV (BLR), 5-8, in the 70kg semifinals but rebounded for a 6-1 win over Zhan SAFYAN (BLR).
Takhti Cup bronze medalist Noriyuki TAKATSUKA (61kg) notched a pair of wins at 61kg but but had to settle for fifth place after losses to Russian world team candidate Alexander BOGOMOEV (RUS) in the quarterfinals and two-time world champion Viktor LEBEDEV (RUS) in the bronze medal finals.
Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:
Men’s freestyle
57kg – TAKAHASHI, Yuki (2nd, 13 entries)
R1 – df. Pedro MEJIOS (VEN), 9-2
R2 – df. Dimchik RINCHINOV (BLR) by fall
SF – df. Vladislav ANDREEV (BLR), 3-2
F1 – lost to Ibragim ILYASOV (RUS), 4-6
57kg – MORISHITA, Fumitaka (9th, 13 entries)
R1 – lost to Asadulla LACHINAU (BLR), 4-6
61kg – TAKATSUKA, Noriyuki (5th, 11 entries)
R1 – df. Kryzysztof BIENKOWSKI (POL) by fall, 3-0
R2 – lost to Alexander BOGOMOEV (RUS) by TF, 0-11
c1 – df. Voloutnik KOIDA (SVK), 7-2
F3 – lost to Viktor LEBEDEV (RUS), 1-3
61kg – KAMOI, Masakazu (9th, 11 entries)
R1 – lost to Recep TOPAL (TUR), 3-5
70kg – KOJIMA, Takafumi (3rd, 14 entries)
R1 – df. Siergei TEPLIAKOV (RUS), 9-0
R2 – df. Pawel ALBINOWSKI (POL) by TF, 10-0
SF – lost to Azamat NURIKOV (BLR), 5-8
F3 – df. Zhan SAFYAN (BLR), 6-1
70kg – HOSAKA, Ken (9th, 14 entries)
R1 – lost to Azamat NURIKOV (BLR) by fall
c1 – lost to Zhan SAFYAN (BLR), 1-2
74kg – SHIMADA, Daisuke (13th, 13 entries)
R1 – lost to Krystian BRZOZOWSKI (POL) by TF, 0-10
86kg – MATSUMOTO, Atsushi (10th, 24 entries)
R1 – df. Daniel RAMA (ESP), 11-6
R2 – lost to Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (ESP), 4-5
86kg – MATSUMOTO, Shinya (24th, 24 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Istvan VEREB (HUN) by TF, 0-10
c1 – lost to Mohammadhossein MOHAMMADIAN (IRI) by TF, 10-0
97kg – SUZUKI, Seiji (8th, 13 entries)
R1 – df. CHENG Cuixiao (CHN), 4-3
R2 – lost to Yusup JALILAV (BLR), 0-6
125kg – OKA, Tomoyuki (8th, 12 entries)
R1 – df. Toni BERNHARDT (GER), 3-0
R2 – lost to Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) by fall
c1 – lost to Luis VIVENES (VEN), 5-10
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