Japanese Men Denied Medal for First Time at Asian C’ships

BANGKOK (February 20-21) – Four Japanese freestyle wrestlers came up short in the bronze medal matches, settling for fifth place, as Japan’s male wrestlers were denied a medal for the first time in the history of the Asian Games and Asian championships.

Masakazu KAMOI, a fifth-place finisher at 61kg in the 2015 world championships, notched a pair of wins early but fell to Takhti Cup winner Meysam NASIRI (IRI) in the semifinals at 65kg and Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL) in the bronze medal final.

Koki YAMAMOTO (97kg) also won a pair of matches but was tripped up by junior world bronze medalist Bakhdaulet ALMENTAY (KAZ), 5-2, in the bronze medal final. Keisuke OTOGURO (61kg) and Nobuyoshi TAKOJIMA (70kg) both won bouts in repechage, but had to settle for fifth place after losses in bronze medal matches.

Despite the lack of a medal, the four fifth-place place finishes lifted the freestyle squad to sixth place in the final freestyle team standings.

The Japanese greco-roman squad, with many of its top wrestlers looking ahead to the Rio 2016 Asian qualifying tourney in March, was held to only four eighth-place finishes.

It was the first time that the Japanese men in both styles were denied a medal in the Asian continental meets, including the Asian Games, held once every four years from 1954, and the Asian championships, first organized in 1979.

Results of bouts involving Japanese entries:

Freestyle

57kg – KAWANO, Yosuke (7th, 16 entries)

R1 – df. Muhammad BILAL (PAK) by TF, 10-0, 0:27

R2 – lost to Younes SARMASTIDIZAJI (IRI) by TF, 13-2, 3:00

61kg – OTOGURO, Keisuke (5th, 11 entries)

R1 – lost to Behnam EHSANPOOR (IRI) by TF, 15-4, 3:52

r1 – df. Rahul AWARE (IND) by TF, 10-0, 1:33

F3 – lost to Tuvshintulga TUMENBILEG (MGL), 4-9

65kg – KAMOI, Masakazu (5th, 19 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – df. Saparmurat MYRADOV (TKM) by TF, 10-0, 4:25

R3 – df. JON Kum-Su (PRK), 5-2

SF – lost to Meysam NASIRI (IRI) by TF, 0-11, 4:48

F3 – lost to Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL) by Fall, 5:42 (9-4)

70kg – TAKOJIMA, Nobuyoshi (5th, 13 entries)

R1 – lost to Adam BATIROV (BRN), 0-7

r1 – df. Batyr BORYAKOV (TKM) by Forfeit, 0:35 (0-0)

F3 – lost to Mohammad NADERI (IRI), 7-10

74kg – KITAMURA, Kohei (8th, 15 entries)

R1 – lost to Moustafa HOSSEINKHANI (IRI), 3-4

r1 – lost to Saiakbai USUPOV (KGZ), 5-2

86kg – MATSUSAKA, Masao (7th, 15 entries)

R1 – df. Selim MUHADYEV (TKM) by TF, 10-0, 2:07

R2 – lost to Ehsan LASHGARI (IRI), 2-10

r1 – lost to Azlan KAKHIDZE (KAZ), 3-8

97kg – YAMAMOTO, Koki (5th, 14 entries)

R1 – df. Mausam KHATRI (IND), 10-6

R2 – lost to Magomed MUSAEV (KGZ), 6-0

r1 – df. Muhammad BIN NARON (SGP) by Fall, 0:30 (10-0)

F3 – lost to Bakhdaulet ALMENTAY (KAZ), 2-5

125kg – TANAKA, Tetsuya (14th, 14 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – lost to Aiaal LAZAREV (KGZ) by TF, 12-0, 1:12

Team Scores (Top Six)

1. Iran               73 points (5 gold medals, 1 silver, 1 bronze)

2. Mongolia       63 (0-1-5)

3. Kazakhstan   56 (1-3-2)

4. India              41 (1-1-0)

5. Kyrgyzstan    40 (0-1-3)

6. Japan            35 (0-0-0)

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