The 3 day Tokyo 2020 Olympics wrestling test event ended on Saturday with Japan’s former junior world champion Umi Imai clinched victory on the final day in the 53kg weight category.
53kg result
The Japanese wrestler progressed to the final of the women’s 53 kilogram event yesterday at the Olympic venue of Makuhari Messe Hall. Imai, who earned her junior world title in Slovakia last year, faced the challenge of China’s Lannuan Luo in the final. She clinched a narrow 3-2 win to top the podium. Japan’s Ibuki Tamura and Saki Igarashi won the two bronze medals on offer.
57kg event
Imai’s triumph was the second Japanese success of the day, with the hosts having already been assured of victory in the 57kg event. Yumeka Tanabe emerged as the winner of the all-Japanese final against Sena Nagamoto. Tanabe triumphed 6-4 on points. China’s Qi Zhang and Japan’s Andoriahanako Sawa claimed the bronze medals in the weight divisions.
50kg event
The 50kg final saw China’s Chun Lei earn a 5-2 win over Japan’s Miu Shimizu. Ukraine’s Mariia Vynnyk and Japan’s Remina Yoshimoto rounded off the podium positions. Organizers conducted the medal ceremonies as preparations continued for next year’s Olympic Games. The medal ceremonies took place without national anthems being played. No spectators were able to attend the test event, other than invited guests. As with test events in other sports, wrestling competition took place under the Ready Steady Tokyo banner.
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Rui SAKANO (JPN) took the other gold at stake on the second day of the three-day tournament by edging Atena KODAMA (JPN) 2-1 at 62kg, avenging a loss to her compatriot at last year’s All-Japan Championships.
The women’s tournament in the six Olympic weight classes is part of the “Ready Steady Tokyo” series of test events for all sports on the Toky0 2020. Wrestling is one of four sports that will be held at Makuhari Messe, an international convention center located on the Tokyo Bay coast in neighboring Chiba city.
The event, which had drawn a limited number of entries coming so close to the World Championships in Kazakhstan, was open to the media for the first and only time on Friday. No spectators, other than invited guests, have been allowed, and the only sounds outside of the mat echoing in the cavernous hall are shouts from coaches and teammates.
In line with the first day of finals, medal ceremonies were held for the three weight classes on one of the three mats. The medalists stepped up to a single-level medal stand placed on a red carpet and bearing the “Ready Steady Tokyo” logo. Volunteers brought out the medals on cafeteria trays, and a wrestling dignitary placed them around the winners’ necks. No national anthems were played.
Sakano, a 2017 world U23 champion, became the first gold recipient after her victory over 2018 world junior champion Kodama, in which she scored both of her points with Kodama on the activity clock. Kodama earned a point for fleeing in the final seconds.
“It’s possible I’ll face her again in a national competition this year,” said Sakano, who defeated world 59kg bronze medalist PEI Xingru (CHN) in the semifinals on Thursday. “I’m just trying to put out on the mat what I work on practice.”
With world bronze medalist Yukako KAWAI (JPN) having clinched a spot at Tokyo 2020 and almost surely planning to skip the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships in December, Sakano knows the door is open to reaching her most immediate goal.
“I still haven’t become the national champion at 62kg,” said Sakano, who also won a gold at the Rio 2016 test event. “What I most regret [in the finale] is that I wasn’t aggressive. I’ll work on fixing that heading toward the Bill Farrell [Memorial International] in New York and the Emperor’s Cup in December, and hopefully, that will bring me a national title.”
The bronze medals went to LUO Xiaojuan (CHN), who received a victory by default over Pei, and European U23 champion Ilona PROKOPEVNIUK (UKR), who stormed to a 10-0 technical fall over Anna SHCHERBAKOVA (RUS).
Wang, a bronze medalist in Nur-Sultan at 65kg, had eased into the 68kg final with victories by technical fall and fall, but was hampered by the onset of stomach cramps against world junior champion Matsuyuki and had to make a first-period takedown stand up for a 2-1 win.
“I was thinking to attack more and get more points,” Wang said. “But because of [my condition] I couldn’t really do that.”
Wang said she felt fine about competing so soon after the World Championships.
“There’s no problem because it was so close because I am ready for all competitions,” she said.
Taking home the bronzes were Alina RUDNYTSKA (UKR), who rode a 4-point first-period cradle to a 4-3 win over Alexandra GLAUDE (USA), and Rin MIYAJI (JPN), who rallied to defeat Alena STARODUBTSEVA (RUS), 9-6
While there was no match to decide the gold at 76kg, one bronze-medal playoff was an intriguing match-up of generations. Justina DI STASIO (CAN), the 2018 world champion at 72kg, had her hands full with teenager and world junior bronze medalist Yasuha MATSUYUKI (JPN) before coming away with a 3-0 win.
Di Stasio gained the first-period point with Matsuyuki—Naruha’s twin sister—on the activity clock, then scored a single-leg takedown in the second.
“I didn’t know she was so young and then the match starts and you hear, ‘a 26-year-old versus a 19-year-old’ and I was like, ‘Man, I hope I do good against the 19-year-old,’” Di Stasio said. “She’s long, super long, so it was like trying to stay patient and not take bad, bad shots–which I did once–but I came out of it.”
Di Stasio, who gave up a last-second takedown to lose 2-2 to Zhou in the semifinals, had missed out on a place at the World Championships to Rio 2016 Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN).
With two months to prepare to challenge Wiebe for the Tokyo 2020 spot at the Canadian trials in December, she sees making the trip to compete at the Olympic venue as invaluable.
“It just makes it so real,” Di Stasio said. “You come here and you see it all and you’re competing in the place [for the Olympics]. It was pretty real before I came here, but to be here and know what it’s like. You can very much visualize what you’re training for.
“It is a long trip, and it’s a quick trip. But it was important. I didn’t go to the World Championships….Watching all that stuff was a lot of emotions, too. Just trying to focus through stuff, which is something I don’t get at practice all the time. The tournament environment is totally different so it was completely worth coming out here.”
Winning the other 76kg bronze was Romana VOVCHAK (UKR), who defeated Mizuki NAGASHIMA (JPN) by fall in 3:19.
In the morning session, the qualification rounds (actually mainly quarterfinals as all weight classes have only eight or nine entries) were held for the remaining three divisions, which were more notable for who did not wrestle than who did.
Two world medalists in Olympic weight classes in Nur-Sultan, RONG Ningning (CHN) and PANG Qianyu (CHN), as well former Olympic medalist SUN Yanan (CHN), all were entered in the tournament, but without the intention of actually taking part. As such, their opponents were awarded victories by default.
“They were very tired and had some injuries,” said a team spokesperson. “We didn’t suppose they would participate.”
Venue manager Yasukazu Fujimori was sympathetic of the Chinese wrestlers.
“This is a test event, it’s not a championship, it’s not a ranking event,” Fujimori said. “The Chinese athletes who were at the World Championships in Kazakhstan have fatigue, and this tournament doesn’t really mean anything, so I understand their feelings about canceling.”
