2014.07.21

UMEBAYASHI, YAMASAKI TAKE BRONZE AS CADET WORLD C’SHIPS CLOSE

HUMENNE, Slovakia (July 20) – Taro UMEBAYASHI and Yajuro YAMASAKI came back from disappointing losses to take bronze medals in boys’ freestyle on the final day of the cadet wrestling world championships.

Umebayashi, a wrestler for the JOC Elite Academy, scored a late takedown going out-of-bounds for a 4-2 win over Jasbir JASBIR (IND) in the bronze medal final at 63kg to complete the day at Humenne Hockey Stadium with four wins against a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Teymur MAMMADOV (AZE).

Yamasaki of Saitama Sakae high school outside Tokyo fell in the 76kg semifinals to another eventual winner Mark HALL (USA) and fell behind Singh SURENDER (IND), 0-4, in the bronze medal final before finally rallying for four points of his own and a win on last-point criteria.

Toshiya ABE at 46kg and Joji NAGATA at 54kg both notched wins in the preliminaries but were unable to advance beyond the round of 16, while Hiroto NINOMIYA was saddled with a difficult draw to eventual champion Givi MARTCHARASHIVILI (GEO) and bronze medalist Naeim HASSANZADEH (IRI).

Japan’s two bronze medals, along with a third won by Daigo HATTORI at 42kg on the first day of freestyle competition, lifted Japan to seventh place overall in the team rankings with 32 points. Russia won with 78 points, followed by Iran (68) and the United States (50).

Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:

Freestyle

46kg – ABE, Toshiya (9th, 22 entries)

R1 – df. Ilya MATYAS (BLR) by TF, 10-0=2:30

R2 – lost to Teimuraz VANISHVILI (GEO), 5-7

54kg – NAGATA, Joji (9th, 24 entries)

R1 – df. Ion SOILITA (MDA) by TF, 10-0=1:57

R2 – lost to Mahal NOVRUZOV (AZE), 9-11

63kg – UMEBAYASHI, Taro (Bronze, 24 entries)

R1 – df. Luis BARRIOS ROCHEZ (HON), 8-2

R2 – df. Gevorg MKHEYAN (ARM), 6-1

R3 – lost to Teymur MAMMADOV (AZE), 4-6