CA_Wrestler

This is gonna be interesting....at 57kg, Risako is on the same side of the bracket as Sakurai.

Yep. Both of them looked really, really good. There can only be one winner though.

Mens 57kg- Rei Higuchi is in the finals 65kg is tomorrow with Otoguro competing. Womens 53kg- Okuno vs Kiyooka. Early in the match, Okuno goes for a single and slips a little, Kiyooka capitalized and got the td. Okuno hit a really nice low single later on to make it 2-2. Late in the match, Kiyooka got a td right on the edge to win, 4-2. After Fujinami pinned Shidochi, she pinned again in the 2nd round when she was up 2-1. Fujinami vs Kiyooka in the finals. 59kg- Nagamoto(2017 WC) beats Sakano in the semis and beats Tokuhara in the finals, 6-3. Nagamoto was the 2017 cadet world silver. If Risako loses tomorrow, she can challenge for this spot. 62kg finals- Motoki vs Inagaki. Motoki scores first with a nice single and turn, 4-0. No other scores during the first period. With about a minute left, Motoki gets a feet to back, 8-0. Motoki the 62kg rep. 68kg- I was confused as to what was going on because I had incorrectly thought it was Kawai vs Ishii in the finals, but they did another round robin for the top 4 from yesterday. I will say, Furuichi looked really, really good down at 68kg. Ishii barely hung on against Furuichi, 5-3. Furuichi almost had a td right at the buzzer. Morikawa vs Ishii- Morikawa gets a 4 early, Ishii battles back, but it had a wild finish with Morikawa going for a single at the edge, both getting into a scramble position, Morikawa is able to stand up, holding Ishii's legs and turns Ishii to get exposure points. Kawai vs Furuichi- Kawai just edges out Furuichi by 3 right at the end of the match. Furuichi just about had a td right at the buzzer that would have given her the win, but Kawai slips out and goes behind. FINALS: Morikawa vs Kawai- Morikawa gets a td, then a pushout to make it 3-0. The rest of the second period, neither could get in clean, Morikawa wins, 3-0 and is the 68kg rep. 76kg- Kagami is 2-0 and it looks like she'll be the rep but you never know. Round robin here, too.

Fujinami just beat Shidochi by pin. The score was 7-2 at the time of the pin. Fujinami got a single to make it 2-0. Funjinami shot and got in on a leg, went for a turn, but Shidochi used momentum and turned Fujinami to make it 2-2, but Fujinami regained control, 3-2. After the break, Fujinami got in on another single to make it 5-2, then was going for a lace, but stood up and walked over shidochi to try and get a pin. Shidochi was bridging for a really long time, but Fujinami was just too good and finally secured the pin. Both looked amazingly sharp, but Fujinami was just faster and just a little sharper. Amazing.

55kg- Kataoka(21) beats Natami(19) in the finals, 4-2. Natami was the 2022 U20 WC and the 2019 U17 WC. 65kg- Yoshitake won 7-0 in the finals. She was the 2022 U20 WC at 65kg. She was also 1st at the Zagreb Open this year. 72kg- Shindo beat Niikura, 4-3 in the finals and there will be yet another new rep here. Shindo was 3rd at the U23 World Championships in 2019.

Morning update. 1st day of the Meiji Cup, greco and womens wrestling. 62kg- Not a huge shocker because their previous matches were decided by 1 or 2 points, Inagaki beats Ozaki 6-6 on criteria in the 2nd round. Motoki completely dominates with 2 pins and is in the finals against Inagaki. We'll only be seeing Ozaki at U23 and U23 now for Japan for 2 years unless something crazy happens in Serbia this year to Motoki. 68kg- Round robin going on in this weight, but in group A-Ishii beats Furuichi on criteria, 2-2. Also beat Matsuyuki, 8-2. in group B, Yukako Kawai won all 3 of her matches, including beating Miwa Morikawa 4-4 on criteria. It'll be Ishii vs Kawai in the finals.

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.