Weekly FIVE! August 20, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 11:34 By Eric Olanowski

Discussing Japan's eight gold-medal performance at Junior Worlds and Kamal claiming his third consecutive junior world title. Also looking at Russia's final wrestle-offs, Dake downing Dieringer, and counting down until the first whistle at the World Championships.

1. Japanese Women Win Eight of Ten World Golds
Japan’s women’s wrestling team went eight-for-eight in world title bouts -- claiming an unheard-of eight of ten gold medals at the 2019 Junior World Championships last week in Tallinn, Estonia. They also added on a pair of bronze medals and brought their tournament grand total medal count to ten on their way to doubling Russia’s second place team score. Japan finished the tournament with 230 points, while the Russian Federation, who finished in second place, had 115 points. Ukraine (91 points) rounded out the top three 139 points behind the Japanese women.

The team champions were led by the pair of two-time senior-level world champions Yui SUSAKI (50kg) and Haruno OKUNO (53kg).

Susaki claimed back-to-back junior world titles after seizing a 10-0 victory over 2016 cadet world silver medalist Daria KHVOSTOVA (RUS) in the 50kg finals.

With her win last week, Susaki brought her grand total to seven overall world gold medals since appearing at her first World Championships in 2014. When asked where this world title stacks up on her list, Susaki said, “My final goal is an Olympic gold medal. I will do my best and I will try to practice towards my final goal.”

Susaki pushed her total world championship record to 31-0 -- with 29 of those wins being shutout victories. Perhaps a more impressive stat is Susaki has now outscored her 31 world championship opponents 290-6 en route to reaching the top of the podium.

She believes the reason she’s so successful is because her strength and mind. She said, “The reason why I get the championships is my own strength and mind.”

Haruno OKUNO was one of Japan's eight wrestlers who won a junior world title. (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

Japan’s second two-time senior world champ to win junior world gold last week was Haruno Okuno, who won the 53kg title.

Okuno said she keeps all of her world title belts at her parent’s ’house. Well, their house gained an additional world championship belt after their daughter claimed her fifth world title in as many tries. The reigning two-time senior-level world champion added her first junior world title to her list of accomplishments after expelling Anudari NANDINTSETSEG (MGL), 7-2 in the 53kg gold-medal bout.

By watching Okuno’s four matches, where she outscored her opponents 35-2, you would have never been able to tell that she was facing extreme neck pain on her right side. After her finals match, she talked about having to work on her counter offensive attacks because of her pain, saying “Now I feel neck pain, so I didn’t try to (tackle). In this tournament, the counterattack was very nice for me.”

In her finals match, the always calm and stoic Okuno shot a low-level attack and picked up the early two-point lead. Her counter offense came into play when she stopped a Nandintsetseg attack and used a fluid arm-drag to a head outside single leg to pick up four points – improving her lead to 6-0. She then surrendered her first points of the tournament, an inactivity point and a stepout, but was awarded a brutality point after her Mongolian opponent was warned several times for hands-to-the-face. Okuno closed out her run to her first junior world title with a 7-2 victory.

When asked if there’s a difference between a junior world title and a senior world title, Okuno said, “There isn’t difference between junior and senior because it means the same. It a world championship. I’m always feeling very happy to (wrestle) against the world’s wrestlers.”

Japanese Medal Winners:
50kg - Yui SUSAKI (GOLD)
53kg - Haruna OKUNO (GOLD)
55kg - Saki IGARASHI (BRONZE)
57kg - Akie HANAI (GOLD)
59kg - Sae NANJO (GOLD)
62kg - Yuzuka INAGAKI (GOLD)
65kg - Miwa MORIKAWA (GOLD)
69kg - Naruha MATSUYUKI (GOLD)
72kg - Yuka KAGAMI (GOLD)
76kg - Yasuha MATSUYUKI (BRONZE)

2. Kamal Wins Third Straight Junior World Title
Kerem KAMAL (TUR) will represent Turkey in Nur-Sultan in mid-September at the World Championships, but first, he made the journey to Estonia and claimed his third straight junior world title.

Kamal held up three fingers to the crowd, signaling his possession of a third consecutive junior world title after he defeated Sahak HOVHANNISYAN (ARM), 7-2 in the 60kg gold-medal bout. “I’m very happy to win the third gold medal in the junior category. I was before in the cadet finals three times and I lost,” said Kamal.

In his gold-medal bout, the Turkish wrestler trailed after the first period, but he expected to be in that position. “The match plan was (to be) safe in the first (period)…Safety first.” The second period was pivotal for Kamal in picking up his third world. After playing it safe in the first period, Kamal said, “In the second period, I go full power.” That’s exactly what he did. In the final three minutes, Kamal got to work quickly, smothering Hovhannisyan with a right-side gut wrench follow by a four-point lift from the right side and commanded the 7-1 lead. He conceded a second-period point but ended up carrying the Turkish flag around the mat at a World Championships for the third consecutive year with a 7-2 victory.

Kamal’s attention now shifts towards the Senior World Championships, where he’ll be Turkey’s 60kg world team representative. The new minted three-time junior world champ begins his quest to win a senior world gold on September 16.

3. Russia’s Freestyle World Team Set
The final wrestle-offs for Russia’s freestyle team took place last weekend, and a trio of world champions will be heading to Nur-Sultan looking to defend their world titles from last year’s Budapest World Championships.

The three world champs who hadn’t locked up their spot until last weekend were Zaur UGUEV (57kg), Zaurbek SIDAKOV (74kg) and Abdulrashid SADULAEV (97kg).

At 57kg, defending world champion Zaur Uguev was excused from the Russian National Championships after a bronze-medal finish at the European Games.

To make his third straight world team, Uguev had to take out Arian TYUTRIN to earn his spot on the world team. There were questions surrounding Ugev’s health coming into the match, but he clearly showed he’s the best 57kg wrestler in the most dominant freestyle nation on earth with a 10-0 win in his wrestle-off.

In the 74kg wrestle-offs, defending world and European Games champion Zaurbek Sidakov, who was also granted a release from the Russian National Championships, earned his spot on this year’s team as he narrowly snuck got past 2016 world champion Magomed KURBANALIEV, 2-1.

Four-time world and Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev was the final wrestler to cement his spot on the world team. The defending European champion and European Games gold medalist pulverized Vladislav BAITSAEV, 10-0 in their wrestle off.

Sadualev’s win last weekend leaves hope for the wrestling community to see the rematch between the three-time world and Olympic champions “The Russian Tank” and Kyle “Captain America” Snyder in the 97kg finals.

Russia’s Freestyle World Team:
56kg – Zaur UGUEV
61kg – Magomedrasul IDRISOV
65kg – Gadzhimurad RASHIDOV
70kg – David BAEV
74kg – Zaurbek SIDAKOV
79kg – Gadzhi NAVIEV
86kg – Artur NAIFONOV
92kg – Alikhan JABRAILOV
97kg – Abdulrashid SADULAEV
125kg – Anzor KHIZRIEV

4. Dake Downs Dieinger in Two Straight Matches, Will Represent USA at 79kg
Reigning 79kg world champion Kyle DAKE (USA) returned from injury and defeated Alex DIERINGER (USA) in two straight matches to make his second consecutive United States world team. Dake scored a tactical 3-2 victory in match one, then opened up a little in the second match and grabbed the 4-1 victory -- booking his ticket to the 2019 World Championships.

Last year, in his World Championships debut, Dake outscored his opponents 37-0 en route to his first world title. After defeating Dierging in two straight matches last weekenk, Dake heads to Kazakhstan as the favorite to repeat in a weight depleted due to Olympic weight changes.

USA’s Freestyle World Team:
57kg - Daton FIX
61kg - Tyler GRAFF
65kg - Yianni DIAKOMIHALIS / Zain RETHERFORD
70kg - James GREEN
74kg - Jordan BURROUGHS
79kg - Kyle DAKE
86kg - Pat DOWNEY
92kg - J'den COX
97kg - Kyle SNYDER
125kg - NickGWIAZDOWSKI

5. The Countdown Begins to the World Championships
We’re officially under a month away from the start of the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Today marks the 25th day until the first whistle at the Barys Arena in Kazakhstan's capital city formally known as Astana.

This year’s World Championships will hold immense weight because the top-six wrestlers in each weight category will qualify their nation's spot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The schedule for this year’s Worlds is much different than that of the Budapest World Championships. Unlike last year, where Greco-Roman closed out the 2018 World Championships, Greco-Roman will instead kick things off this year -- beginning on September 14. Women’s wrestling will be sandwiched in between Greco-Roman and freestyle -- starting on September 17. Finally, freestyle will close out the World Championships, with the potential third match-up between the three-time world and Olympic champions Abdulrashid Sadualev and Kyle Snyder squaring off the 97kg gold medal. The pair have split the last two world titles at 97kg, with Snyder winning in Paris and Sadualev exacting revenge in Budapest by picking up the 70-second fall.

Here is the World Championships SCHEDULE.

Japan Wrestling

Shozo Sasahara, 1956 Olympic champion and former Japan federation president, dies at 93

Monday, March 6, 2023 - 18:27 By Ken Marantz

TOKYO (March 6) --- Hall of Famer Shozo SASAHARA, a gold medalist at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics who went on to become president of the Japan Wrestling Federation and an executive of FILA, the predecessor of UWW, has died of natural causes, the Japan federation announced on Monday. He was 93.

Sasahara, who had suffered a stroke in 2014, won the gold medal in the featherweight class (62kg) of freestyle at the Melbourne Games, where he served as flag-bearer for Japan in the opening ceremony. Two years earlier, he had won the gold at the World Championships held in Tokyo.

Sasahara became renowned for his pioneering use of legs in what is today referred to as a grapevine, but was reverently termed by the English-speaking press in his prime as "Sasahara's Leg Scissors."

Those would be his lone international triumphs, as he was a late bloomer who only started wrestling after entering Chuo University in Tokyo, having previously competed in judo. He retired after the Melbourne Olympics and would have a long career in business and sports governing.

"He was always a leader in the sports world with ideas and actions that were ahead of the times," current JWF President Hideaki TOMIYAMA said in a statement. "As a wrestler, he was adored by many people from around the world as a pioneer of techniques. It is sad not only for wrestling, but the sports world. I would like to express my sincere condolences."

Sasahara was the national team performance enchancement director when Japan won five gold medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and four at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He served as JWF president from 1989 to 2003, and was a director at FILA from 1972 to 1993, during which time he also served as a vice-president.

Sasahara also held the post of vice-president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, and was awarded the Olympic Silver Order by the International Olympic Committee in 1995.

Sasahara was born on July 28, 1929, in Yamagata, the capital city of Yamagata Prefecture in the cold-weather Tohoku region of northern Japan.

According to an account he penned himself in 2005 for a Japan Olympic Committee website series titled "Japanese Olympian Spirits," he said he was in the sixth year of elementary school when World War II broke out, and that inspired him to want a career in international trade, so he enrolled in Yamagata Commercial School for his junior and high school years.

His home was in the north part of the city and the school was four kilometers away in the south. In his third year, he started working at an aircraft factory, which was also four kilometers from his home, so every day for five years until graduation, he had an eight-kilometer round-trip walk. As he needed to learn English, he would carry flash cards and study them as he walked.

At school, judo, kendo (Japanese fencing), and swordsmanship were regular parts of the curriculum, and there was also military training, such as throwing grenades. After the war ended, he would visit a nearby U.S. military base, where he was able to practice his English on a native speaker for the first time, and eventually got a part-time job there.

While at school, Sasahara joined the town's judo club. There, an older teammate said that the university he went to did not have a judo club, so he had switched to wrestling. The friend said Sasahara was perfect for the sport and urged him to try it. Using money he saved from the job on the U.S. base -- and without telling his parents -- he went down to Tokyo to take the entrance exam for Chuo.

As a freshman in the spring of 1950, he started his wrestling career. His first impression of wrestling at Chuo was not good. Blood was splattered on the canvas mat and it smelled of sweat. The mat was hard and wrestlers would sometimes be knocked out. Anyone who skipped practice would be found and beaten. As he had not yet learned the techniques and wasn't physically strong, he thought many times of quitting.

But he didn't give up, and instead drove himself to become better and better. In his second year, he made the finals of several collegiate tournaments, which further encouraged him to put his full energy into the sport. He would sneak into the other powerhouses of the day, Waseda and Meiji universities, to observe the practices and techniques, and read books written by U.S. coaches. Wrestling became a 24-hour-a-day obsession.

In 1953, he won his first title at the All-Japan Championships, as well as the national collegiate title. After graduating, he captured the world title in May 1954, beating 1952 Helsinki Olympic champion Bayram SIT (TUR), then successfully defended his All-Japan crown.

Sasahara went to Melbourne confident of victory. Japan had only been let back into the Olympics four years earlier in Helsinki, but FILA had been among the first of the individual sports organizations to readmit the nation, in 1949.

International exchanges resumed in 1951. Japanese wrestling was still in the developmental stage, but federation chief Ichiro HATTA saw the exchanges as the optimal path to getting stronger. Among those who went on a wrestling tour to the United States was Shohachi ISHII, who became Japan's first-ever Olympic wrestling gold medalist in Helsinki. His success, and the speedy moves he brought back from America, served to inspire Sasahara and the others. "If he could do it, we can, too," Sasahara thought.

The team also did tours of the other wrestling powers -- Russia, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania -- and Sasahara absorbed it all, which would pay off in gold in Melbourne.

After his triumph, Sasahara, then 27, decided to retire, as he felt he had reached his limit. He noted that it was also a clean way to go out -- from his first All-Japan title to that point, he had won exactly 200 straight matches. He pursued his career in international trade, spending time in America and later importing sporting goods. He was the first to import sports drinks into Japan.

He also got involved in sports organization. He put Japan wrestling's flop at the 1960 Rome Olympics down to poor training and nutrition, which would lead to him to help establish a government-back organization in 1976 to improve the general health and conditioning of athletes.

In one of his last public appearances, Sasahara donated his Olympic gold medal to his high school alma mater in October 2018.

Weekly FIVE! August 20, 2019

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Shozo Sasahara, 1956 Olympic champion and former Japan federation president, dies at 93