GUMI, Korea (February 16) – Kazuma Kuramoto and Takehiro Kanakubo earned silver medals in greco-roman on the opening day of the Asian wrestling championships, while Shota Tanokura added a bronze for the Japanese squad.
Kuramoto, fifth at last year’s Asia meet in Tashkent, opened at 60kg with a win over 2010 silver medalist Woo Seung-Jae (KOR) and rode that momentum into the finals. The former Takushoku University star, however, lost to Yerbol Konyratov (KAZ), 1-2, after taking the first period of the final.
Kanakubo, fifth at the 2010 worlds, posted a pair of convincing wins at 74kg before edging 2007 Asia No. 2 Asset Adilov (KAZ) in the semifinals. In the final, however, Kanakubo could not get anything going against 2010 junior world bronze medalist Hadi Alizadeh Pournia (IRI) and lost, 0-2.
Tanokura, Japan’s collegiate national champ for Nippon Sports Sciences University, fell to junior world bronze medalist Elmurat Tasmuradov (UZB) in the 55kg semifinals, but rebounded in the match for third place with a 2-0 win over Jogindar Singh (IND).
Meanwhile, Taichi Oka at 84kg and Fumiya Itakura at 66kg each lost a pair of bouts and and finished in fifth and seventh place, respectively.
Greco-roman
55kg – TANOKURA, Shota (Bronze, 11 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Margarito Angana (PHI), 2-0 (2-0, 1-0)
SF – lost to Elmurat Tasmuradov (UZB), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)
F3 – df. Jogindar Singh (IND), 2-0 (1-1, 3-0)
60kg – KURAMOTO, Kazuma (Silver, 11 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Woo Seung-Jae (KOR), 2-1 (2-1, 0-1, 1-0)
SF – df. Ravinder Singh (IND), 2-0 (1-0, 3-0)
F1 – lost to Yerbol Konyratov (KAZ), 1-2 (1-0, 0-4, 0-6)
66kg – ITAKURA, Fumiya (7th, 11 entries)
R1 – df. Lu Jen-chun (TPE), 2-0 (4-0, 4-0)
R2 – lost to Pan Zheng (CHN), 0-2 (0-1, 0-5)
c1 – lost to Ruslan Tsarev (KGZ), 0-2 (2-4, 0-5)
74kg – KANAKUBO, Takehiro (Silver, 13 entries)
R1 – df. Kao Ming-hung (TPE), 2-0 (1-0, 8-0)
R2 – df. Taha Al Salihi (IRQ), 2-0 (2-1, 1-0)
SF – df. Asset Adilov (KAZ), 2-0 (2-1, 3-1)
F1 – lost to Hadi Alizadeh Pournia (IRI), 0-2 (0-2, 0-2)
84kg – OKA, Taichi (5th, 15 entries)
R1 – lost to Habibollah Jomeh Akhlaghi (IRI), 0-2 (0-1, 0-1)
c1 – df. Nezar Oudeh (SYR), 2-0 (1-0, 1-0)
F3 – lost to Duan Ning (CHN), 1-2 (3-2, 0-2, 0-1)
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