BANGKOK (February 17-18) – With Japan’s top flight wrestlers looking ahead to the Rio 2016 Asian qualifier next month, Japanese entries at the Asian Championships were unable to advance to the medal matches in any of the eight greco-roman weight categories.
Shota TANOKURA, silver medalist at the 2013 Asian meet, stumbled 4-4 to eventual bronze medal winner Gaudrav SHARMA (IND) in the consolation semifinals and had to settle for eighth place at 59kg.
Tsuchika SHIMOYAMADA (66kg), Takahiro YAMAMOTO (71kg) and Yuya MAETA (80kg) all equaled Tanokura’s team-high eighth-place finish.
It was the first time since the 2007 Asian championships in Bishkek that the Japanese greco-roman wrestlers failed to secure a place on the medals podium.
Japan finished ninth out of 19 national wrestling federations that sent wrestlers to Bangkok.
Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:
Greco-Roman
59kg – TANOKURA, Shota (8th, 13 entries)
R1 – df. KWON Jin-Un (PRK), 7-5
R2 – lost to Kanybek ZHOLCHUBEKOV (KGZ) by TF, 2-12, 2:32
r1 – lost to Gaudrav SHARMA (IND), 4-4=last point
66kg – SHIMOYAMADA, Tsuchika (8th, 12 entries)
R1 – df. Deepak DEEPAK (IND) by TF, 10-0, 2:38
R2 – lost to Askhat ZHANBIROV, 0-6
r1 – lost to YUN Won-Chol (PRK) by TF, 0-8, 1:34
71kg – YAMAMOTO, Takahiro (8th, 9 entries)
R1 – lost to YUN Jong-Gyu (KOR) by TF, 13-5, 4:15
75kg – KANAKUBO, Takehiro (12th, 14 entries)
R1 – lost to Ruslan TSAREV (KGZ), 0-2
80kg – MAETA, Yuya (8th, 12 entries)
R1 – lost to Ramin TAHERISARTANG (IRI) by TF, 8-0, 3:56
r1 – lost to Ashkat DILMUKHAMEDOV (KAZ), 1-4
85kg – OKAJIMA, Yuya (10th, 11 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Yousef GHADERIAN (IRI) by TF, 0-9, 2:04
98kg – YONEHIRA, Yasuhiro (10th, 12 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Uzur DZHUZUPBEKOV (KGZ) by fall, 2:02 (0-4)
130kg – TSUDA, Hirotake (10th, 10 entries)
R1 – lost to Muminjon ABDULLAEV (UZB) by TF, 8-0, 1:41
Team Scores (Top Six)
1. Iran 71 points (4 gold medals, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
2. Kazakhstan 58 (1-1-4)
3. Kyrgyzstan 49 (2-1-2)
4. Uzbekistan 47 (0-3-1)
5. Korea 44 (1-0-1)
6. India 43 (0-1-3)
…
9. Japan 15 (0-0-0)
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