ULAANBAATAR (April 24) – Former Asian championships bronze medalist Takeshi YAMAGUCHI posted a win against a pair of losses for Japan’s best finish among four entries in freestyle at the First World Qualifying Tournament for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Yamaguchi opened with a 6-0 win in the round of 16 over Jozef JALOVIAR (SVK), who had finished third at the European qualifier 10 days earlier, but then fell to Magomed IBRAGIMOV (UZB) in the quarterfinals and again to KIM Jae-Gang (KOR) in the consolation bracket.
Japan’s other three entries – Shogo MAEDA (65kg), Masao MATSUSAKA (86kg) and Taiki YAMAMOTO (125kg) – all lost their opening bouts and did not a chance to wrestle in the repechage bouts.
Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:
Freestyle
65kg – MAEDA, Shogo (20th, 27 entries)
R1 – lost to Sayatpek OKASOV (KAZ), 1-2
86kg – MATSUSAKA, Masao (18th, 23 entries)
R1 – lost to Tamerlan TAGZIEV (CAN), 1-8
97kg – YAMAGUCHI, Takeshi (9th, 20 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Jozef JALOVIAR (SVK), 6-0
R3 – lost to Magomed IBRAGIMOV (UZB) by TF, 0-11, 4:31
r1 – lost to KIM Jae-Gang (KOR), 1-3
125kg – YAMAMOTO, Taiki (14th, 17 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Khasanboy RAKIMOV (UZB) by Fall, 0:39 (4-4)
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