WARSAW (August 3-4) – Kohei HASEGAWA returned to international competition with a big win over the top-ranked wrestler in the FILA World Rankings on his way to the 55kg crown at the Wladyslaw Pytlasinski Memorial greco-roman wrestling tournament.
HASEGAWA, who finished 10th at the London 2012 Olympic Games, notched four wins at Arena Ursynow in Warsaw for the title, including a technical fall over 2011 world runner-up Elbek TAZHYIEV (BLR).
TAZHYIEV won the European championship this spring and came into the Pytlasinski meet top-ranked at 55kg in greco-roman.
In the final, HASEGAWA picked apart another London Olympian Aleksandar KOSTADINOV (BUL) with an arm throw for three points in the first period and three force-outs in the second for a 6-0 win.
Meanwhile, Hiroki KIMURA, also at 55kg, notched a technical fall before losing to HASEGAWA in the quarterfinals and Dave Schultz Memorial runner-up Nursultan KALMURSAEV (KAZ) in the consolation bracket. The Nippon Sports Sciences University student finished in seventh place.
At 96kg, Yasuhiro YONEHIRA made an early exit, losing to Maksim SAFARYAN (RUS) by technical fall in the second round. YONEHIRA was eliminated from competition when SAFARYAN, a former two-time bronze medal winner at the Ivan Podubbny tourney, fell in the semifinals.
Greco-roman
55kg – HASEGAWA, Kohei (1st, 21 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Nursultan KALMURZAEV (KAZ) by TF, 1P=1:50 (7-0)
R3 – df. Hiroki KIMURA (JPN), 9-5
SF – df. Elbek TAZHYIEV (BLR) by TF, 2P=1:06 (9-5=2x3pt)
F1 – df. Aleksandar KOSTADINOV (BUL), 6-0
55kg – KIMURA, Hiroki (7th, 21 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – df. Marvin SCHERER (GER) by TF, 2P=2:51 (10-1)
R3 – lost to Kohei HASEGAWA (JPN), 5-9
c1 – lost to Nursultan KALMURSAYEV (KAZ), 1-3
96kg – YONEHIRA, Yasuhiro (18th, 20 entries)
R1 – bye
R2 – lost to Maksim SAFARYAN (RUS) by TF, 1P=1:33 (0-7)
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