NAKANO TAKES 5TH IN GRECO AT ON 2ND DAY OF JR WORLD C’SHIPS

BUCHAREST (July 27) – Tomoaki Nakano notched three wins against a pair of losses to claim a fifth-place finish on the final day of greco-roman competition at the junior wrestling world championships.

Nakano posted a pair of wins in the opening rounds at 55kg but fell to eventual champion Narek Khachatryan (ARM) in the quarterfinals. The Nippon Sports Sciences University student bounced back with a 2-1 triumph over Ramunas Dagys (LTU) in the consolation bracket before losing to Elmurat Tasmuradov (UZB) in the bout for third place.

Other than Nakano, however, Japan's other three entries on the day were unable to break into the win column, losing four matches and scoring only one point for all their efforts.

Ryo Kikuchi of Aoyama Gakuin University tried to make the best of a difficult draw at 84kg, but came up short against European junior champ Zhan Beleniuk (UKR) and 2010 bronze medalist Stanislav Kanev (BUL). Beleniuk and Kanev finished the day with silver and bronze, respectively.

Waseda University freshman Shori Maekawa battled another 2010 European bronze medal winner, but came out on the short end of a 0-1, 0-1 decision against Kiryl Hryshchanka (BLR). Hryshchanka, listed as Kiril Grichenko in the international wrestling database, eventually took a world bronze medal.

Meiji University's Hyogo Endo scored Japan's only other point of the day at 66kg against Yoo Yeon-Tak (KOR), who finished fifth in last month's Asian junior championships in Jakarta.

Greco-roman
55kg – NAKANO, Tomoaki (5th, 27 entries)
R1 – df. Csongor Knipli (HUN), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
R2 – df. Victor Ciobanu (MDA), 2-0 (2-0, 1-0)
R3 – lost to Narek Khachatryan (ARM), 0-2 (0-3, 0-5)
c1 – df. Ramunas Dagys (LTU), 2-1 (0-1, 2-0, 2-0)
F3 – lost to Elmurat Tasmuradov (UZB), 1-2 (0-2, 2-0, 0-2)

66kg – ENDO, Hyogo (26th, 36 entries)
R1 – lost to Yoo Yeon-Tak (KOR, 11Aj5), 0-2 (1-2, 0-6)

84kg – KIKUCHI, Ryo (29th, 29 entries)
R1 – lost to Zhan Beleniuk (UKR, 11Ej1), 0-2 (0-5, 0-1)
c1 – lost to Stanislav Kanev (BUL, 10Ej3), 0-2 (0-2, 0-5)

120kg – MAEKAWA, Shori (17th, 21 entries)
R1 – lost to Kiryl Hryshchanka (Kiril Grichenko, BLR, 10Ej3), 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)