WAKO, Saitama (July 14-15) – Tomotsugu Ishida and Tsukasa Tsurumaki won their weight categories in their respective styles and were named the outstanding wrestlers at the shakaijin national championships at Wako municipal gymnasium.
Ishida won the 66kg crown in men's freestyle while Tsurumaki won the 84kg title in greco-roman. Ishida was runner-up at the national invitational in June and Tsurumaki was a silver medalist at the 2010 Asian Games at 84kg.
Women's freestyle featured a championship final at 63kg between former world champions Ayako Shoda and Mio Nishimaki. Shoda won the bout and was named the outstanding wrestler in women's freestyle.
Meanwhile, Hiroyuki Shimizu won his second straight shakaijin crown, this time at 74kg, as wrestlers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces team won six of the 14 categories contested in the men's freestyle and greco-roman.
Ken Sogabe also won his fourth straight shakaijin title in greco-roman at 120kg.
The shakaijin championships are open to non-student senior-level wrestlers, although student wrestlers were allowed to compete in the women's freestyle events.
Winners in the individual weight categories:
Men's freestyle
55kg – Yosuke KAWANO
60kg – Yasuhiro MORITA
66kg – Tomotsugu ISHIDA
74kg – Futoshi YOKOYAMA
84kg – Yuki NAGATA
96kg – Shinichi NAKAI
120kg – Takuya MASUDA
Women's freestyle
48kg – Aya NAKATANI
51kg – Riho OTA
55kg – Yuki IKEGAMI
59kg – Natsumi HAYAMI
63kg – Ayako SHODA
67kg – Chiaki IIJIMA
72kg – Hiroe SUZUKI
Greco-Roman
55kg – Masaharu KAJI
60kg – Ko SASAKI
66kg – Kazuhiko NARUSE
74kg – Hiroyuki SHIMIZU
84kg – Tsukasa TSURUMAKI
96kg – Yuji YAMAMOTO
120kg – Ken SOGABE
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