OKAMOTO BAGS SILVER AT DAVE SCHULTZ MEMORIAL

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (February 3) – Newly crowned national champ Yuji Okamoto notched four convincing wins to advance to the 66kg final in greco-roman, but had to settle for a silver medal on the opening day of the Dave Schultz Memorial wrestling tournament.

Okamoto edged 2009 European bronze medalist Sharur Vardanyan (SWE) in the three periods in the semifinals and had 2007 world No. 3 Harry Lester (USA) on the ropes after a 7-1 first period in the 66kg final. Lester, however, caught Okamoto with a whip-over counter early in the second for the fall.

Ryo Minemura (55kg), Kazuma Kuramoto (60kg) and Hirokazu Shinjo (120kg) all earned fifth-place finishes while Taichi Oka (84kg) and Norikatsu Saikawa (96kg) both placed sixth.

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Greco-roman
55kg – MINEMURA, Ryo (5th, 11 entries)
R1 – df. Nathan Engel (USA), 2-0 (2-1, 4-0)
R2 – lost to Anders Ronningen (NOR), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)
c1 – df. Roger Stewart (USA) by TF, 2-0 (7-0, 6-0)
c2 – df. Francisco Godina (MEX), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
c3 – lost to David Andrzej Ersetic (POL), 1-2 (2-5, 2-0, 0-1)
F5 – df. Aleksandar Kostadinov (BUL), 2-1 (0-1, 6-3, 2-0)

60kg – KURAMOTO, Kazuma (5th, 11 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Jeremiah Davis (USA), 2-0 (4-0, 1-0)
SF – lost to Chad Vandiver (USA), 1-2 (4-0, 0-1, 0-2)
c1 – lost to Marco Lara (USA), 0-2 (0-2, 0-3)
F5 – df. Ivo Angelov (BUL), 2-0 (3-0, 2-2)

66kg – OKAMOTO, Yuji (2nd, 21 entries)
R1 – df. Kerry Regner (USA), 2-0 (1-0, 6-0)
R2 – df. Ricardo Magni (ITA) by TF, 2-0 (7-0, 8-0)
R3 – df. Marius Thommesen (NOR) by fall, 2P=1:06 (2-0, F)
SF – df. Sharur Vardanyan (SWE), 2-1 (0-2, 2-1, 1-0)
F1 – lost to Harry Lester (USA) by fall, 2P=0:40 (7-1, F)

74kg – SUMI, Kosuke (did not place, 27 entries)
R1 – lost to Aaron Sieracki (USA), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)
c1 – df. Chad Hemerson (USA) by default, 0:00
c2 – lost to Mateusz Wolny (POL), 0-2 (0-3, 0-1)

84kg – OKA, Taichi (6th, 19 entries)
R1 – df. Ryan Hope (USA), 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)
R2 – df. Mark Stenberg (USA), 2-0 (3-0, 1-0)
R3 – df. Chas Betts (USA), 2-1 (2-0, 0-1, 1-0)
SF – lost to Kristofer Johansson (SWE), 1-2 ( 0-3, 2-0, 0-6)
c1 – lost to Christoffer Ljungback (SWE) by default, 0:00
F5 – lost to Cheney Haight (USA) by default, 0:00

96kg – SAIKAWA, Norikatsu (6th, 20 entries)
R1 – lost to RC Johnson (USA), 0-2 (0-1 0-1)
c1 – df. Daigoro Timoncini (ITA), 2-1 (0-1, 1-0, 4-0)
c2 – df. Joseph Sheffield (USA), 2-0 (5-0, 1-0)
c3 – df. Pete Gounaridis (USA), 2-0 (7-0, 1-0)
c4 – df. Kenyon Walsh (USA), 2-1 (0-2, 5-3, 2-0)
c5 – lost to Rob Smith (USA) by fall, 2P=1:37 (0-1, F)
F5 – lost to Justin Ruiz (USA) by fall, 1P=0:38

120kg – SHINJO, Hirokazu (5th, 7 entries)
R1 – lost to Lukasz Banak (POL), 0-2 (0-4, 0-1)
c1 – df. Orlando Ramirez Abaroa (MEX), 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)
c2 – lost to Ivan Ivanov (BUL), 0-2 (0-4, 0-4)
F5 – df. Rocco Ficara (ITA) by default, 0:00