JAPAN CLAIMS 1ST MEDAL EVER IN GRECO CADET WORLD C’SHIPS

    SZOMBATHELY, Hungary (August 27-28) – Kenichiro Fumita won a bronze medal at 50kg as the greco-roman events got under way at the cadet wrestling world championships and gave Japan its first-ever medal in greco-roman in the history of the tourney.

    Fumita opened with a narrow win over European cadet bronze medal winner Gevorg Gharibyan (ARM) but was eventually tripped up in the semifinals by reigning Youth Olympics and European cadet champ Murad Bazarov (AZE). The Nirasaki Kogyo star, however, roared back for the bronze medal with a 6-0, 5-0 win over Kemal Mulayim (TUR).

    Katsutoshi Ichioka, meanwhile, got off to a good start with two wins at 46kg, but had to settle for fifth place after losses to Asia champion Reza Khedri (IRI) in the semifinals and to European champ Karim Jafarov (AZE) in the bronze medal final.

    Yuki Tanaka posted a pair of wins against two losses at 58kg to claim eighth place. The Minami Kyoto wrestler fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Elman Mukhtarov (AZE) who also owns two European cadet crowns and a gold medal from the last year's Youth Olympic Games.

    Azerbaijan won the greco-roman team title with 65 points coming from only one champion and a total of seven other wrestlers finishing in fifth place or higher. Russia was second with 57 points followed by Iran with three champions and 53 points.

    Japan finished in 12th place overall with 17 points from Fumita's bronze medal and the placement points from Ichioka and Tanaka.

    Results of Japan's individual entries:

    Greco-roman

    42kg – KOBAYASHI, Daiki (11th, 16 entries)
R1 – lost to Artur Simonyan (ARM), 1-2 (4-1, 0-6, 2-6)

    46kg – ICHIOKA, Katsutoshi (5th, 17 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Daniel Kocar (SLO), 2-0 (3-3, 1-0)
R3 – df. Matthew Rundell (USA), 2-1 (1-0, 3-9, 6-0)
SF – lost to Reza Khedri (IRI) by fall, 1P (F0-3)
F3 – lost to Karim Jafarov (AZE) by TF, 0-2 (0-7, 0-7)

    50kg – FUMITA, Kenichiro (Bronze, 22 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Gevorg Gharibyan (ARM), 2-1 (0-1, 3-3, 2-0)
R3 – df. George Gabor (ROU), 2-0 (1-0, 5-1)
SF – lost to Murad Bazarov (AZE), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)
F3 – df. Kemal Mulayim (TUR), 2-1 (0-2, 6-0, 5-0)

    54kg – IZUMIDA, Yoshiki (15th, 21 entries)
R1 – lost to Stefan Grigorov (BUL), 0-2 (0-1, 0-2)

    58kg – TANAKA, Yuki (8th, 25th)
R1 – df. Bertalan Papp (HUN), 2-0 (1-0, 4-0)
R2 – lost to Elman Mukhtarov (AZE), 0-2 (0-6, 0-1)
c1 – df. Luca Stedile (ITA), 2-0 (1-0, 2-0)
c2 – lost to Arslan Orashev (TKM), 0-2 (0-5, 0-2)

    63kg – YABIKU, Shohei (22nd, 25 entries)
R1 – lost to Payam Bouyeri Payani (IRI), 0-2 (0-3, 0-1)
c1 – lost to Tsimur Berdyeu (BLR), 0-2 (0-1, 0-4)

    69kg – MAEDA, Yuya (17th, 28 entries)
R1 – lost to Rashid Bogatirev (UZB), 0-2 (3-6, 0-4)

    76kg – IKEZAWA, Yuki (21st, 23 entries)
R1 – lost to Zori Melikyan (ARM), 0-2 (0-3, 0-6)

    85kg – YONAHA, Ryuta (18th, 23 entries)
R1 – lost to Kukuri Kirtskhalia (GEO), 0-2 (0-2, 0-1)

    100kg – YOSHIKAWA, Yusuke (19th, 19 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Tamas Soos (SVK), 0-2 (0-1, 0-4)