YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa (August 2-3) – Hanasaki Tokuharu high school of Saitama swept all seven bouts in the championship final to reclaim the national high school freestyle wrestling title over Kagoshima’s Kanoya Chuo with a 7-0 triumph.
Hanasaki Tokuharu came from behind to defeat this year’s favorite Inabe Sogo Gakuen (Mie), 4-3, in the third round with a technical fall from Takashi ISHIGURO at 84kg and a forfeit at 120kg, then in the semifinals rolled over this spring’s high school invitational winner Kasumigaura (Ibaraki), 6-1.
Riding a wave of momentum into the final, Hanasaki Tokuharu wrestlers won the first four bouts – three by technical fall — to secure the title and then cruised in the next three bouts to nail down the historic shutout win.
Kanoya Chuo advanced to the finals for the first time in 12 years with a 4-3 win over Hiryu (Shizuoka), a third-place finisher last year, in the third round and romped, 6-1, in the semifinals over Ginan Kogyo (Gifu).
Hanasaki Tokuharu, which won the 2012 national title but fell in last year’s prefectural (state) meet, became the second team in the history of the championships to win every bout in the final. Kosei Gakuin of Aomori defeated Miyagi’s Tohoku Kodai Denshi high school, 7-0, in the 1979 final.
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