CA_Wrestler

Saw this when I woke up this morning on UWW's site: Excerpt from the article" "The 20-year-old, using his speed and a lethal gut wrench, dominated Olympic champion Zavur UGUEV (AIN), blanked world champion Vitali ARAJAU (USA) and posted three other technical superiority wins en route to the gold medal at 61kg. All that with a broken ankle." https://uww.org/article/wrestling-prodigy-ono-takes-big-strides-familys-support

I forgot to mention that in the Meiji Cup next May or June, Fujinami(if she's really bumping up this fast) AND Sakurai are going to be entering at 57kg. If either one wins that tournament, they'll have a playoff against Natami for the 2025 57kg spot. There is no way Natami is coming close to beating Fujinami or Sakurai unless there's some fluke or injury.

Well, now she will. Sakurai vs Fujinami and their last match at 59kg this year wasn't particularly close with Fujinami winning. Sakurai never threatened at all because Fujinami is just way too fast for her-just like she's too fast for everybody at 53kg. Kiyooka vs Fujinami has just been utter ownage and Kiyooka is just completely outclassed by Fujinami. It's just not even close. Like I was also speculating earlier this year if Fujinami bumped up to 57kg, Susaki might bump up to 53kg since she's been at 48/50kg since she was 16 and now 25. Remina Yoshimoto(Olso 50kg WC) will slide into the 50kg spot if that does happen. Yoshimoto just beat Umi Ito yesterday in another very close Emperor's Cup finals match, 3-2. Susaki vs Moe Kiyooka(or possibly past 53/55kg WC Haruna Okuno) is going to be very, very good. Yoshimoto is better than Kiyooka, but this will be fun to keep an eye on. Mainly because Kiyooka and Sakurai are teammates, normal training partners, Olympic training partners and Moe Kiyooka's brother won the 65kg gold in Paris. Moe Kiyooka is the hungry dog here and just won the 53kg tournament. Haruna Okuno won the 55kg tourney(will eventually drop to 53kg, but probably not next year) with a come from behind win in the finals against high schooler Sowaka Uchida(1x U20 WC, 2x U17 WC). Okuno was up by 1 toward the end of the match. Uchida scored 1, Uchida had criteria and Okuno's corner challenged and lost. 3-2 Uchida with VERY short time left. Okuno kept the pressure on and got a feet to back for a 6-3 win right before the buzzer. PAST MEETINGS: 2024- Moe Kiyooka beat Haruna Okuno in the 55kg playoff finals, 3-2 and Kiyooka won the 2024 55kg Senior World title(teched Zhang of China in the finals). 2023- 55kg playoff tournament, Okuno beat Kiyooka 2-2 on criteria in the first round and Okuno won the 2023 55kg Senior World title(beat Jacarra in the finals, 4-2). But as far as making the National team goes, you have to win both tournaments (Emperor's Cup and Meiji Cup) to make the team. Susaki and Fujinami will most likely enter the Meiji Cup, try to win that tournament and force a playoff with Kiyooka at 53kg and Sara Natami at 57kg. Fujinami will dominate Natami pretty easily. Susaki and Kiyooka could be a very close match because although Kiyooka is really fast, Susaki is way faster and technically, much better.

He did win 1/2 of the National Qualifying tournament, but let's get a reality check. None of the better wrestlers competed like Higuchi, Ono, or even the lower tiered guys etc.. The last time he competed at an Olympic weight in 2023 Meiji Cup, he finished 16th. I definitely think working with DT can tighten his technique up, but executing it against Ono is a different story His sister does go to college in the US, but I have no clue why. Doesn't even make sense because the university she used to go to in Japan is light years better than where she is now at Northern Michigan. The problem for her is that she can't beat any of the top tier 50 or 53kg women in Japan. The last time she entered a fully loaded Emperor's Cup(2022 Japan Olympic qualifier), she lost in the 1st round to the 9th ranked wrestler by tech.

I don't think international athletes can participate in NIL. Maybe I'm wrong. He won a collegiate title last year as well at 61kg and the 2024 Japan college national championships are in 8 days. Not sure if he's competing.

No. He's been with Yamanashi Gakuin University and currently there now.

Kiyooka is 23. The past several years, Ono has been jumping all over the place. 57, 60, 61, 65. I'd say he probably tries to compete for Japan's 57kg spot at next year's Senior World Championships. Ono was amazingly impressive this week. He and Kiyooka had a very close match in the 2023 Emperor's Cup finals(for the 65kg Olympic spot) for around 2 minutes until Kiyooka caught him and teched him, 11-0.

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.

Tsugumi Sakurai has never lost internationally before the Asian Championships this year. Yep, Ozaki bumped up from 62kg.

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

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.

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.

I wouldn't consider it an upset at all, but some people might since Ozaki bumped up 2 weight classes to take the spot. Ozaki is now 4-0 against Ishii. 2-0 at 62kg and 2-0 at 68kg. The previous victory at 68kg being in the first round of the 68kg tournament this past December, 6-2.

Do or die for the Olympic spot. Ishii's team and supporters on one side of the mat, Ozaki's team on the other side and Shoko Yoshimura(Susaki's high school coach) is in her corner. I just watched it live, Ozaki was up 3-0 at the break, Ishi got 2 later on, then with 26 seconds left, Ishii got in on a low single and got a td right on the edge and it was Ishii winning, 4-3 with 9 seconds left and restart in the center! Ozaki then hit Ishii with a fantastic misdirection low single and scores the winning takedown with 2 seconds left, Osaki's camp goes nuts, Shoko goes nuts, Ozaki goes nuts. Clutch, clutch TD! Ishii is stunned beyond belief, just staring down at the mat because 9 seconds prior, she had the spot. After they raise Ozaki's hand in victory, Ishii just falls down and you can hear her crying really loudly through all of the commotion and 2 of her University coaches pick her up and both help her off the mat, but she falls back down, inconsolable. I saw Moe Kiyooka there, not sure if Sakurai was there. Hug from Shoko Japan's Womens Olympic Freestyle team is now complete: -50kg- Yui Susaki (Shoko Yoshimura hs wresting academy coach) -53kg- Akari Fujinami -57kg- Tsugumi Sakurai 62kg- Sakura Motoki 68kg- Nonoka Ozaki (Shoko Yoshimura hs wresting academy coach) 76kg- Yuka Kagami (Shoko Yoshimura hs wresting academy coach)

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.