CA_Wrestler

Yuki got married and her new last name is Tanaka

That is going to be the weight to watch for sure. The only way Susaki loses is if the Irie sisters have been scheming something

I'm pretty sure it is. They're going by the current UWW rules.

Yep, going on right now

50kg- Both Irie sisters confirmed for 50kg.....which is weird.

Nah, the deadline is on the 17th.

Not a complete list

Not sure, but he was born in '58, so he could be a relative

Not that this will impact anything in this tournament, but it's confirmed that Nanami Irie(2019 55kg senior silver) will be competing at 50kg instead of her sister, Yuki. She's never competed at 50kg. The last time she was close to this weight was 2013 when she was 18 and competed at 51kg where she finished 3rd. Mayu Shidochi finished 2nd in this same tournament while she was 16 and in high school. Mayu pinned Nanami in the semis when Mayu was up 7-0 and then Mayu lost in the finals 6-6 on the much hated ball grab that I'm glad is gone.

Me

That's awesome!

Why are the senior world championships and Olympics grouped? Two separate events and one way more prestigious than the other.

As far as the matchups you mentioned, all of those were folk, right?

I saw the schedule over the weekend. It'll be great! Are you going to even be able to watch? I think the 53kg finals are EARLY Christmas morning if I'm remembering correctly.

That's great that somebody replied though haha

I was going to post this list early this morning, but no time. I'll add some thoughts on this. This competitor list is not complete yet. I've counted 17 high school competitors that have qualified this this event. -At 50kg, I think there's a typo there. Nanami Irie usually competes at 53kg and her sister, Yuki Irie competes at 50kg. Yuki won the All Japan Women's Open at 50kg and said she intended to compete for the 2023 spot. Nanami is missing from the 53kg list. Nanami is definitely not beating Susaki or Yoshimoto if that is no typo. I still think Susaki wins this weight. -53kg, no surprises. Going to be the best weight to watch at the Emperor's Cup for sure. Between Shidochi, Fujinami and Okuno there are 6 senior world titles and 1 Olympic title. Don't know who will win here, but if Shidochi trains again with Susaki, I think Shidochi will have the edge. Susaki is faster than Fujinami the best training partner anybody can get at the lower weights. -55kg, Moe Kiyooka not going to go back down to 53kg somewhat surprising considering she went 53kg in a domestic tournament right before U23 and lost to Okuno. Okuno won that giant, 44 wrestler weight class. However, not surprising about Kiyooka because she would lose to Okuno again, already lost to Shidochi badly and definitely not beating Fujinami. Another factor is her competing at the World Cup and having to drop down to 53kg in two weeks. She's obviously the favorite to win 55kg *at this tournament*, but not the spot if any of the top 53kg bump up next year. 57kg- This comes down to Tsugumi Sakurai and Sara Natami and I see Tsugumi winning again. Not shocking that Risako isn't down at 57kg yet. She came back the other month and won an open tournament at 59kg since she hadn't competed since the Olympics. She's definitely not in tip top wrestling shape yet even though she's been training with her sister a lot. I can guarantee she'll go 57kg next year at the Meiji Cup to try and win the tournament and force a playoff match. She'll be the favorite at 59. 59kg- Risako will win this weight. Nothing surprising at 62 kg. As predicted Sakura Motoki(2022 senior bronze at 59kg) bumped up, but she's not beating Ozaki and I don't think she beats Kawai. I think as of right now, Ozaki is a very close 3rd best on Japan's senior team behind (1st)Susaki and (2nd)Shidochi. You have to remember that in the span of SIX months, she soundly defeated Olympic silver and defending 62kg WC from Oslo(Tynybekova) at the Asian Championships(Avenging the loss to Tynybekova in Oslo right at the end of the match). Beat the reigning 62kg Olympic champion for the team spot(Yukako Kawai). Easily won U20 and then won the senior world title pretty easily while defeating Tynybekova again in the semis. To cap it off, won U23 easily. Despite UWW's article error, she's still 19. I think she beats Kawai and Kawai retires. As stated, the career of a womens freestyle wrestler in Japan is very short. -Nothing surprising at 65kg. Reigning senior WC Miwa Morikawa bumped up to 68. I'm pretty sure none of the listed competitors at 65 have been on a senior world team. -Nothing surprising at 68kg. Morikawa bumped *back* up. She had lost a playoff match to Sara Dosho to go to the Tokyo Olympics at 68kg a few years ago. Furuichi back down, Matsuyuki there as well as 2021 Olso Silver, Rin Miyaji. Google translate is not 100% correct in translations. I think it comes down to Ami Ishii(2022 senior silver) and Morikawa. I think Ishii slightly edges Morikawa out since Morikawa hasn't wrestled 68kg in close to 3 years. -At 72kg, not surprised that Niikura is staying at 72kg. Tweener for sure. Too big for 68kg and too small for 76g. Not very mobile, either. I could see Shindo or Fujikura winning. That weight almost has 0 experience on their senior team at this weight except for Niikura and Shindo. -76kg I think their 2022 senior bronze(Kagami) will win this spot. She lost a really close match to Adar in the semis in Belgrade. I think the other wrestler here with senior team experience is Matsuyuki.

meaning...the stream will likely go down at some point because there will be a ton of people watching

There will probably be a stream, but the one thing you have to remember is that these wrestling events in Japan, especially the Emperor's Cup and Meiji Cup are televised on national tv and are huge events.

I'm not sure yet. They haven't announced anything.

Japan is sending their F-G team like I was predicting. The Emperor's Cup is way too important to potentially miss. Especially for any of the wrestlers who graduated college already since this is their job. Their best wrestler on that World Cup squad is Moe Kiyooka. She's going to go 53kg in Dec at the Emperor's Cup like she did earlier this year, but as I said before....Shidochi put a beating on her in the finals. She knows there's no way she's beating Shidochi, Fujinami, Okuno or even Irie and that's probably why she's competing at the World Cup. And I know you're going to ask, but Fujinami has been back to full speed and was training at National Team camp a few weeks ago. 53kg at the Emperor's Cup is going to be insane.

What did I miss?