CA_Wrestler

It'll be on the Japan Wrestling Federation youtube channel as usual

I totally forgot one thing for 55kg for some reason. I forgot that last December, Kiyooka won 55kg. So, the same thing as Risako at 57. If Kiyooka loses at 53(which is very likely), she can still challenge for the 55kg spot. Kiyooka beat Kataoka in last December's finals, 2-0. I still think if Kiyooka challenged that she would win, so... 50kg- Susaki 53kg- Fujinami 55kg- Kiyooka 57kg- ? 59kg- Risako/Sakano 62kg- Ozaki 65kg- Yoshitake 68kg- Ishii 72kg- Niikura 76kg- Kagami

True, but it's Flo. They've got a Pentium 90mhz with 32mb of RAM on Windows 95 streaming each event through a 33.6 modem.

Isn't that how it's always been, though?

Don't worry. When they fix it, you'll find out that you're supposed to be the one wrestling tomorrow.

The biggest note to remember--- *Anybody who places top 3 at the 2023 Senior World championships at an Olympic weight is guaranteed that spot for the 2024 Olympics in Paris* This is why we'll see a new/newer face at practically ALL of the non-Olympic weights for this year's Senior World Championships. These spots will be filled in mostly by wrestlers from their junior to possibly cadet teams. 50 kg-It'll come down again to Susaki and Yoshimoto and I see Susaki being favored. When they met in the finals of the Emperor's Cup last December, Susaki dominated with an 8-0 victory and was yet again the Outstanding Wrestler in the entire tournament going unscored on. 53kg- The most anticipated matchups are in this weight class. It'll come down to Fujinami, Okuno and Shidochi yet again. Moe Kiyooka dropped back down to 53 from 55 to challenge, but she's a clear 4th in this weight class. Okuno beat Shidochi for the first time last December before losing to Fujinami in the finals, 5-0. Fujinami is the definite favorite here. Quick note. For people that don't know, in Japan as a female wrestler, they almost always stay with their college club after graduating. Both Shidochi and Okuno left after graduating as they were both college teammates. After Okuno lost a playoff against Shidochi for the Tokyo Olympic spot, she joined the Military(Self Defense Forces). Shidochi has been without a true place to train(she trains sometimes with Susaki as they went to the same high school), so she has been traveling around and this year and was in Wisconsin earlier in the year to practice and.....she was over at Sunkist for a week practicing with the womens team at ASU last month as she's been a friend of Helen's for a while now and has worked Helen's girls wrestling camps. 55kg- There will be a new senior team member here. Most likely Rino Kataoka(21). She was 3rd at this year's Asian Championships at 55kg. Within Japan, she's around 4th team. 57kg- Risako has dropped back down to 57kg from 59kg. Sae Nanjo(College club teamamte of Risako), Tsugumi Sakurai and Sara Natami(College club teamamte of Risako). This weight will be too hard to predict a winner. Natami is the clear #4 here, but any of the other 3 can win. It'll be interesting to see if Risako is back into wrestling shape yet. She's definitely not back into Olympic champion shape. Both her and her sister left their college club last year and are currently training at a different University club. 59kg- Yuki Sakano will most likely win this spot since Risako has vacated it for the time being. *IF* Risako loses in the 57kg tournament, she can still challenge Sakano since she won this weight last December. 62kg- It'll come down to Sakura Motoki and Nonoka Ozaki. Motoki bumped up from 59kg to 62kg last December and took out Yukako Kawai, 9-2 in the semis AND barely got by Ozaki in the finals, 4-2. Ozaki had a td, but wasn't able to secure it right at the buzzer. I think Ozaki takes this one. If that happens, there will be a playoff match to determine the rep at a later date. 65kg- Mahiro Yoshitake '22 U20 WC, '23 Zagreb Open winner will most likely take this spot. She isn't entering at 62 or 68. 68kg- The biggest surprise weeks ago is that Yukako Kawai bumped up to 68kg. She did have a back injury last December, but she probably knows she can't beat both Motoki and Ozaki at 62 in the same night. Ami Ishii '22 World silver will probably take this spot with other contenders, Morikawa '22 65kg WC, Rin Miyaji '21 68kg Silver and Masako Furuichi '22 72kg WC. Ishii is the favorite. 72kg- Sumire Niikura '22 U 20/U23 Bronze is the favorite. 76kg- Even though Ayano Moro won last December at 17 years old, the then World #3 at the time, Yuga Kagami had to default out of the tournament after winning one match due to a torn pec muscle she had a week earlier in practice. Moro is just way too young and not nearly strong enough to deal with senior level women on the international stage. Kagami is the clear favorite here. 50kg- Susaki 53kg- Fujinami 55kg- Kataoka 57kg- ? 59kg- Risako/Sakano 62kg- Ozaki 65kg- Yoshitake 68kg- Ishii 72kg- Niikura 76kg- Kagami

lol That entire thing was ridiculous. So lazy.

lmao that's her mom's name

I would hope Dom does a lot of scoring. Especially since Helen's special guest was there all last week.

That is true about her staying at 72kg and look good on the resume, but 72kg is going to have very thin competition this year in Belgrade and I'd rather see her against the best competition at an Olympic weight to see where she stands. I definitely think she'd be way better at 68kg than Molinari.

It's a toss up for me between Welker and Guilford. They're pretty close. The only reason why I'm saying Makoyed has the best chance is because she has the mobility and attacks from neutral to score. It'll be really interesting for this year's World Championship team, but I'll be much more interesting seeing who goes where in terms of weight classes for the Olympic WFS team. I wanted to see Elor bump up and try to win the 76kg spot already instead of waiting a year. Seems pointless to wait until next year to do so because 72kg is going to be so depleted of all the top WFS talent at the World Championships since most dropped to 68kg or bumped up to 76kg around the world.

I'll clarify myself then. As far as a top country goes(like the US), Pan Ams are the easiest compared to the competition that's there.

lol....nobody counts national titles unless your career is done and can't achieve anything else. I don't take too much stock in that Pan-Am championship from 2018 because winning that tournament is like winning the Spanish Grand Prix. For any senior member of the US team(especially the womens team), the Pan-Am championship is the easiest continental championship in the world. The Jr World title is good. I do agree about Adeline not beating Blades the next time and only because it's so close and it'll be almost impossible to get the gas tank up to par in that short of a timeframe for Final X. The two that have the best chance to beat her domestically are Makoyed and Guilford. Looking forward to all of the team trials, should be fun!

I said a few years ago on the old forum that if Blades went up to 76kg closer to the Olympic cycle and kept progressing that she'd have a great, long career because nobody would be able to deal with her length and athleticism. However, let's not forget Adeline had twins. Having twins myself, I can guarantee you that there's almost no time for anything else besides taking care of them when they are this young. I was completely exhausted and my wife was way more exhausted than I was. Blades is NOT the best female American wrestler, either. She hasn't won anything of significance yet on the senior level. The ranking tournament she won was weaker than the Zagreb Open in terms of quality of competitors. Her best international win so far was overwhelming Medet Kyzy at Ibrahim Moustafa with her speed and athleticism and that was good to see because I saw her potential turning into results against one of the better ranked 76kg wrestlers. Her best domestic win was over Makoyed at the US Open You are right in saying she has the most potential, but we'll have to see how she does at the WTT and Final X. If she takes the spot, I definitely think she can medal at the World Championships.

Was it because of da pakololo or something else?

I'm just very interested in seeing the 76kg WFS semis and finals.

72kg is going to be a wasteland as far as top wrestlers go since all of the other top contenders dropped to 68 or went up to 76 because of Olympic aspirations.

He'll be ready for the World Championships this year and the Olympics. Since we haven't seen him compete internationally for a while, it's hard to tell where he's at. So, this brings up another question at WFS 68kg.....I can't remember, but who else would be contending for the spot that could actually medal? I really think Amit should drop down, but I don't really know if she cuts weight well. She might be better off at 76kg because I have no clue.

That would be crazy since she's been the favorite in my mind to win another world title this year and another Olympic title in '24, but that's life. Especially when you're an older athlete and grown up things happen. I kept wondering why Otoguro wasn't wrestling since the Olympics. I finally found out last December when he won the Emperor's Cup. He said that he'd lost all motivation after winning the Olympic title because he had achieved his dream and nothing else to shoot for. He was still practicing every day, but didn't want to compete in Oslo or Belgrade.

Nah, we don't need a clown show there.

I forgot that it started already haha. Should be really fun

There are going to be a lot of excellent matches at the Meiji Cup. The reason why a lot of wrestlers also competed at non-Olympic weights at last December's Emperor's Cup is because if they lose in the upcoming Meiji Cup, they can still challenge at the non-Olympic weights if they won if the Emperor's Cup like: Risako at 59kg, Kiyooka at 55kg. None of the other world champions from 2021 and 2022 for the womens team competed at non-Olympic weights last December, so if they lose at Meiji, they're out for a year unless they can compete in U20/U23. Japan's U23 team has mainly the women that haven't been able to make the senior team or made it once. U23(Umi Ito, Tsugumi Sakurai and Yuka Inagaki the most notable), U20(Kiyooka with some others plus 2 high school students) and U17 national tournaments just happened a few weeks ago. Japan did NOT have anybody competing at 68kg for U23, so I don't know if they're sending anybody for the U23 World championships. Due to lack of depth at that weight, all eligible 68kg wrestlers are competing for the Olympic spot instead. It's going to be amazing. Especially 53kg.

50kg- Yoshimoto(JPN) dominates China's rep in the quarters, then gets 2 pins in the semis and finals. Showdown with Susaki next at the Meiji Cup in June. 53kg- Fujinami(JPN) teched her way through. Showdown between Fujinami, Shidochi and Okuno coming at the Meiji Cup in June 55kg- Tokyo Olympic silver, Pang beats Kataoka(JPN) in the semis, then beats MGL in the finals. Kataoka placed 3rd by beating UZB in the bronze match. 57kg- Nanjo(JPN) beats UZB in the finals. Going to be interesting come June with Risako, Nanjo and Sakurai. Especially because Risako and Nanjo were in the same room for a really long time and are good friends. 59kg- Sakano(JPN) beats China in the finals 62kg- The only real surprise on the womens side was that Tynybekova beat Ozaki 2-2 on criteria in the semis, then went on to win the tournament. It'll be interesting to see how Ozaki performs at the Meiji Cup vs Motoki, Inagaki and Yukako Kawai. 65kg- Long(CHN) beats Yoshitake(JPN) in the finals 68kg- Ishii(JPN) beats Nisha(IND) in the finals 72kg- Bakbergenova(KAZ) beats Niikura(JPN) in the finals 76kg- Nagashima(JPN) lost a really close match, 3-2 to Medet Kzy(KGZ) in the semis and then lost in the bronze match to Pryia(IND) in another close match, 2-1 Team standings: Japan 205 China 149 India 143

Nothing surprising. 5 of their #1s aren't going. -50kg- Susaki hasn't competed in an Asian Championships since 2017 where she won gold. -53kg- Fujinami just needed to get back to 53kg to qualify the weight for the Olympics. I would like to think that Ochir would be fun to watch against Fujinami. But seeing how Fujinami just dominated Ochir the last time they met, I think it'll end up going the same way. -55kg- Kiyooka not competing because she's been dropping back down to 53kg as planned. If she loses at the Meiji Cup, she can still challenge for the 55kg spot in Belgrade. Kataoka is Japan's #2 at 55kg, but is really their #3 since Shidochi also dropped back down last December. -59kg- Risako has been dropping back down to 57kg as planned. if she loses at the Meiji Cup, she can still challenge for the 59kg spot in Belgrade. Sakano is their #1 at this weight now. She's a full-time police officer. I don't see how she can even train properly. -62kg- Motoki not going and it's weird to even think that Ozaki(3x world champion last year, but lost to Motoki in the finals of the Emperor's Cup) is the #2. -76kg- Moro, who just turned 18 isn't going and Japan's real #1(Kagami) is still recovering from a torn pec muscle she had prior to the Emperor's Cup last December. So, their rep going is Nagashima, who is Japan's #3.

I can't find any brackets, either. None to even be found on the UWW page for this tournament or anywhere else.