#BudaWrestle2018

Wiebe, Gray to Meet in Semifinals; Mensah Dominates Soronzonbold

Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 12:39 By Andrew Hipps

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (October 23) -- Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN) and three-time world champion Adeline GRAY (USA) both missed last year's World Championships. Both showed they are back by reaching the semifinals with come-from-behind victories in their quarterfinal matches on Tuesday at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The two wrestlers will now meet in the semifinals at 76kg.

Wiebe trailed 2014 world champion Aline FOCKEN (GER) 4-2 with less than a minute remaining in the match before getting a takedown to take the lead on criteria. She added another takedown with 10 seconds remaining to seal the victory. 

Gray found herself in a 6-3 hole with a minute and 30 seconds remaining in her quarterfinal match against Elmira SYZDYKOVA (KAZ) before she secured a takedown and ran the Kazakhstan wrestler over for the fall with just over a minute remaining.

On the top side of the 76kg bracket, reigning world champion Yasemin ADAR (TUR) was unscored open in the opening session, picking up a 10-0 technical fall in her first match and following it up with a 7-0 victory in the quarterfinals over Hiroe MINAGAWA SUZUKI (JPN). She will face local favorite Zsanett NEMETH (HUN) in the semifinals.

Perhaps the most impressive performance of Tuesday's opening session came from Tamyra MENSAH (USA), who dominated two-time world champion Battsetseg SORONZONBOLD (MGL) 10-0 in the quarterfinals at 68kg. Mensah jumped out to an 8-0 lead after the opening period on the strength of three takedowns. She then put the match away early in the second period with another takedown.  Soronzonbold was coming off a 5-2 win over past world champion Jenny FRANSSON (SWE). 

Mensah now faces Koumba LARROQUE (FRA), who remains on track in her quest to add a senior gold medal to a resume that includes world golds at the U23, junior and cadet levels. Larroque opened her competition with two falls before earning an 11-3 victory over Olivia DI BACCO (CAN) in the quarterfinals. 

Alla CHERKASOVA (UKR) and Feng ZHOU (CHN), both past world bronze medalists, will meet in the semifinals in the top half of the bracket at 68kg. 

At 65kg, Top-seeded Petra OLLI (FIN) survived a scare in her first match as she snuck past Sofiya GEORGIEVA (BUL) 4-4 on criteria. She then punched her ticket to the semifinals with a 6-2 win over Ritu RITU (IND).

Her semifinals opponent will be Ayana GEMPEI (JPN), a world champion at the U23 and junior divisions. Gempei cruised to a 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals over Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE). 

On the bottom side of the 65kg bracket, Danielle LAPPAGE (CAN), a 2010 junior world champion, picked up three takedowns en route to a 6-2 win over Forrest MOLINARI (USA). Lappage will now face Iryna NETREBA (AZE), who blanked Chuying TANG (CHN) 3-0 in the quarterfinals. 

Egypt has a semifinalist in women's wrestling in Samar HAMZA (EGY), who dominated Naruha MATSUYUKI (JPN) 12-1 in the quarterfinals at 72kg. Hamza is one win away from reaching the gold-medal match, but standing in her way is returning world bronze medalist Justina DI STASIO (CAN). Di Stacio is one of three semifinalists today for Canada, along with Lappage and Wiebe.

Three-time world bronze medalist Nasanburmaa OCHIRBAT (MGL) edged Buse TOSUN (TUR) 7-6 in the quarterfinals at 72kg, setting up a semifinal meeting with Juan WANG (CHN). Wang has been dominant thus far, picking up two technical falls and outscoring her opponents 23-1. 

The semifinals will take place at 4:45 p.m. local time. 

Semifinal Matchups

Women's Wrestling

65kg
Petra Maarit OLLI (FIN) vs. Ayana GEMPEI (JPN) 
Iryna NETREBA (AZE) vs. Danielle LAPPAGE (CAN)

68kg
Alla CHERKASOVA (UKR) vs. Feng ZHOU (CHN)
Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) vs. Tamyra MENSAH (USA) 

72kg
Justina DI STASIO (CAN) vs. Samar HAMZA (EGY) 
Nasanburmaa OCHIRBAT (MGL) vs. Juan WANG (CHN)

76kg
Yasemin ADAR (TUR) vs. Zsanett NEMETH (HUN) 
Erica WIEBE (CAN) vs. Adeline GRAY (USA)

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.