Akari Fujinami....

[CA_Wrestler]

I've always thought she'd go up to 57kg in the future after her senior debut just because she started so young and she's taller than most of the Japanese womens wrestlers.  She's taller than Maroulis from what I remember.  So, much earlier today in the East Japan University Womens League Dual meet......

Fujinami bumped up from 53kg to 59kg and BEAT 2x Senior World Champion, Tsugumi Sakurai, 5-0.

Might be nothing but wanting to test herself like when Fujinami bumped up to 55kg in the collegiate championships and dominated everybody.  But if she were to bump up to 57kg, I'm just guessing Susaki would move up to 53kg, then Remina Yoshimoto would take the 50kg spot.  All speculation, but very interesting.....

Edited January 14, 2024 by CA_Wrestler
typo

[CHROMEBIRD]

Did Sakurai go 100% or are college duals in Japan kind of DDM like NCAAs? I'm out of my depth here but if it wasn't Fujinami just challenging herself, it's pretty wild for her to play around with her weight at this point before the Olympics... although it makes sense for her to jump past 55kg.

[CHROMEBIRD]

I guess it was a one time thing Fujinami did to test herself. Put her 130+ match winning streak on the line, too.

https://uww.org/article/fujinamis-pre-paris-prepping-includes-victory-rare-clash-fellow-world-champion-sakurai

 

I also appreciate the no-duck/no seed preservation culture:

"What made the Fujinami-Sakurai encounter so unique was that it occurred in such an innocuous event. While NSSU and Ikuei have emerged as the collegiate powerhouses in women's wrestling,  no major title nor individual glory was on the line... 'We are in an era now where the strong wrestlers want to face each other... if you avoid each other, you won't get stronger. There was also the pride of representing their university. The tournament organizer thought they wouldn't face each other, but they wanted to do it.'"

[CA_Wrestler]

On 1/21/2024 at 1:10 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

Did Sakurai go 100% or are college duals in Japan kind of DDM like NCAAs? I'm out of my depth here but if it wasn't Fujinami just challenging herself, it's pretty wild for her to play around with her weight at this point before the Olympics... although it makes sense for her to jump past 55kg.

Sakurai was going 1000% during the match to try and beat Fujinami.  The thing is that both of them have wrestled against each other a lot at the national team camps and from what I've read, Fujinami definitely went up to challenge Sakurai.  I watched the match and Sakurai didn't really come close to threatening Fujinami.

 

So for these duals, I can't remember exactly, but I think 4 collegiate teams were there.  Sakurai's team actually had the best record, but everybody was there to really see Fujinami vs Sakurai.

[CA_Wrestler]

On 1/21/2024 at 9:47 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

I guess it was a one time thing Fujinami did to test herself. Put her 130+ match winning streak on the line, too.

https://uww.org/article/fujinamis-pre-paris-prepping-includes-victory-rare-clash-fellow-world-champion-sakurai

 

I also appreciate the no-duck/no seed preservation culture:

"What made the Fujinami-Sakurai encounter so unique was that it occurred in such an innocuous event. While NSSU and Ikuei have emerged as the collegiate powerhouses in women's wrestling,  no major title nor individual glory was on the line... 'We are in an era now where the strong wrestlers want to face each other... if you avoid each other, you won't get stronger. There was also the pride of representing their university. The tournament organizer thought they wouldn't face each other, but they wanted to do it.'"

So weird.  I didn't even see your second post when I was posting my reply the other day.  I just saw it now.

Oh yeah, Fujinami's 130+ win streak is a big thing in Japanese wrestling.  Especially by the media there.

Like I've said many times before....the top women(especially 50, 53 and 55kg) in Japan face their toughest competition within Japan.  Most of the time, you'll only see the top women face each other at the national tournaments twice a year to decide the World/Olympic team spot OR at the National open tournament where the bracket is gigantic.   So for Fujinami and Sakurai to face each other was great.

More recently, Fujinami(53 to 59), Morikawa(65 to 72kg, 3rd at the 2023 world championships), Ozaki(62 to 68 for the Olympics), etc bumping up 2 weight classes to challenge themselves and do well.  In the past, when Susaki was 17/18 years old,  she entered the National Sports Festival where there is usually only one weight class held and she dominated two years in a row at 53kg when she was wrestling seniors at 48kg.

[tgrass21]

Saw on X that Fujinami is injured and skipping the Asian Championship's.  

[CHROMEBIRD]

Thanks for the update. I Googled around and it looks like she dislocated her elbow and is planning on getting surgery to repair torn ligaments. She'll rehab next month and get back to training starting in May. Wow!

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240315/p2g/00m/0sp/046000c

[CA_Wrestler]

Yep, it'll be interesting at the Olympics.  That's practically the same elbow injury that Susaki had in 2018 after she won the Senior Worlds and had to withdraw from the Emperor's Cup that December.  She then tried to come back too early the following May too early and lost in a playoff match to Yuki Irie for the World Team spot.

[CA_Wrestler]

Oh and Susaki's dislocated elbow injury was also at National Team camp.

[Shibboleth]

On 3/22/2024 at 7:25 PM, CA_Wrestler said:

Yep, it'll be interesting at the Olympics.  That's practically the same elbow injury that Susaki had in 2018 after she won the Senior Worlds and had to withdraw from the Emperor's Cup that December.  She then tried to come back too early the following May too early and lost in a playoff match to Yuki Irie for the World Team spot.

What is situation with Fujinami, is she going to be healthy for Paris? I mean I heard that she was planning to go 57 at the olympics - is that a think or just a rumor? Probably the latter. Even though Susaki might win 53 in Paris too if they let her.

 

[CHROMEBIRD]

On 4/26/2024 at 4:15 AM, Shibboleth said:

What is situation with Fujinami, is she going to be healthy for Paris? I mean I heard that she was planning to go 57 at the olympics - is that a think or just a rumor? Probably the latter. Even though Susaki might win 53 in Paris too if they let her.
 

UWW and Nielson Olympic Analytics have Fujinami listed at 53 and she's supposed to be bak to training this month, but who knows. The 57 spot might be hers to take, if she wants it, with Sakurai losing at the Asian Championships last month. Lots of questions.

[CA_Wrestler]

Fujinami is at 53kg.  There's no way(unless there's an injury) the JWF is going to replace Sakurai at 57kg, especially since she's the 2x defending senior WC.    She lost at the Asian championships, but since the weight was already qualified at last year's senior WC, that particular tournament was  the last international tournament for Japan's WFS team for members that are on the Olympic team.  So basically, practice to get more feel again against foreign wrestlers.

 

Now, the entire thing would be very, very different if Sakurai hadn't placed at the senior WC last year and she didn't make weight like Rei Higuchi did at the Tokyo Olympics Asian Qualifier.  If you remember, the JWF replaced Rei Higuchi with Yuki Takahashi after that whole fiasco.  

Edited May 24, 2024 by CA_Wrestler

[tgrass21]

Saw that she is skipping the Meiji Cup.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Sakurai is also skipping this year's Meiji Cup. I saw that she's Japan's Beach Wrestling rep now? Takatani posted on social media that she won beach nationals last week. I assume this is just early quad stuff and she'll back on the mat by 2028.